The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia Encyclopedia World Factbook American Heritage Coll. It is miscible with water or ethanol.
Lactic acid is produced in the muscles during intense activity.
Calcium lactate, a soluble lactic acid salt, is used as a source of calcium in the diet. Lactic acid is produced commercially for use in pharmaceuticals and foods, in leather tanning and textile dyeing, and in making plastics, solvents, inks, and lacquers. Although it can be prepared by chemical synthesis, production of lactic acid by fermentation of glucose and other substances is a less expensive method. The lactic acid of commerce is usually an optically inactive racemic mixture of the two isomers. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition.