In stereochemistry, mutarotation is the change in optical rotation of a chiral material in a solution due to a change in proportion of the two constituent anomers (i.e. the interconversion of their respective stereocenters) until equilibrium is reached. Cyclic sugars show mutarotation as α and β anomeric forms interconvert.
The optical rotation of the solution depends on the optical rotation of each anomer and their ratio in the solution.
Mutarotation was discovered by French chemist Augustin-Pierre Dubrunfaut in 1844, when he noticed that the specific rotation of aqueous sugar solution changes with time.