Origin of optical activity

Addadi L, Lahav M (1979) in Walker DC (ed) Origins of optical activity in nature. Elsevier, New York, chapt 14... 

D. C. Walker (ed.), Origins of Optical Activity in Nature , (Studies in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, no. 7),... 

Until recently, the phenomenon of chirality has been better known as optical isomerism, and configurational isomers that are enantiomers were referred to as optical antipodes. The reasons for this are mainly historical. It was discovered early in the nineteenth century that many compounds, whether solid, liquid, or gas, have the property of rotating the plane of polarization of polarized light and can be said to be optically active. A satisfactory explanation of the origin of optical activity came much later and developed in its modern form from the classic researches of Louis Pasteur, and from the concept of the three-dimensional carbon atom expressed independently by J. H. van t Hoff and J. A. Le Bel.2... 

Peter Schuster Commentary On The Origin of Optical Activity 109... 

Walker DC, ed. Origins of Optical Activity in NatureT Amsterdam Elsevier, 1979. 

Origins of Optical Activity in Nature (Ed. D. C. Walker), Elsevier, New York, 1979 resolution of racemates by crystallization succeeds by Tamura s Preferential Enrichment in the mother liquor T. Ushio, R. Tamura, H. Taka-hashi, N. Azuma, K. Yamamoto, Angew. Chem. 1996, 108, 2544-2546 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 1996, 35, 2372-2374 R. Tamura, T. Ushio, H. Takahashi, K. Nakamura,... 

Observations on the chirality of crystals made it possible for Pasteur and others to identify dissymmetry as the true origin of optical activity. It became quickly evident that the molecular chirality associated with a given compound could be directly evident in the bulk crystallography of that compound. This in turn led to observable differences in a variety of physical properties, such as the melting point and the solubility of such species. Many chiral molecules have been observed to resolve spontaneously upon crystallization, forming enantiomorphic crystals that can be physically separated. Others can only be resolved through the formation and separation of diastereomeric species. 

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