00478 IUPAC Gold Book - asymmetric 10.1351/goldbook.A00478 A00478 current 1 Lacking all symmetry elements (other than the trivial one of a one-fold axis of symmetry), i.e. belonging to the symmetry point group \(C_{1}\). The term has been used loosely (and incorrectly) to describe the absence of a rotation–reflection axis (alternating axis) in a molecule, i.e. as meaning chiral, and this usage persists in the traditional terms asymmetric carbon atom, asymmetric synthesis, asymmetric induction, etc. asymmetric carbon atom https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00479 asymmetric induction https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00483 asymmetric synthesis https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00484 chiral https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C01057 point group https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04703 Blue Book, p. 480 (https://www.acdlabs.com/iupac/nomenclature/) PAC, 1996, 68, 2193. 'Basic terminology of stereochemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1996)' on page 2199 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199668122193) https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00478/html https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00478/json https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00478/plain Citation: 'asymmetric' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.A00478 The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms. If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org . The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using. 2026-06-29T01:26:11+00:00