Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A double-ringed, crystalline organic base, C5H4N4, not known to occur naturally, from which is derived the nitrogen bases adenine and guanine, as well as uric acid as a metabolic end product.
  • noun Any of a group of organic compounds structurally related to purine, particularly adenine and guanine, and also caffeine, uric acid, theobromine, and theophylline.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun chemistry Any of a class of organic heterocyclic base containing fused pyrimidine and imidazole rings; they are components of nucleic acids

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of several bases that are derivatives of purine
  • noun a colorless crystalline organic base containing nitrogen; the parent compound of various biologically important substances

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[German Purin : blend of Latin pūrus, clean; see pure, and New Latin ūricus, uric (from Greek ouron, urine) + -in, -in, -ine.]

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Examples

  • They form phosphorus-containing organic substances which, together with a form of phosphoric acid, usually contain purine bodies, pyrimidine bodies and a form of sugar or related substance.

    Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1910 - Presentation Speech 1967

  • I started reading about Alzheimer's and tried to familiarize myself with the research, and at the same time when I was in the -- I was reading in the medical library one day, and I read this article about something called purine derivatives.

    Eva Vertes looks to the future of medicine 2005

  • I started reading about Alzheimer's and tried to familiarize myself with the research, and at the same time when I was in the -- I was reading in the medical library one day, and I read this article about something called purine derivatives.

    Eva Vertes looks to the future of medicine 2005

  • I started reading about Alzheimer's and tried to familiarize myself with the research, and at the same time when I was in the -- I was reading in the medical library one day, and I read this article about something called purine derivatives.

    Eva Vertes looks to the future of medicine 2005

  • Uric acid levels are elevated when injesting too much purine, which is found in red meats, legumes, beer, and vegetables such as asparagus and

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • In 1902 Emil Fischer, then in Berlin, was given the prize for "his work on sugar and purine syntheses".

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry: The Development of Modern Chemistry 2010

  • Furthermore, although Powner and colleagues 'synthetic sequence yields the pyrimidine ribonucleotides, it cannot explain how purine ribonucleotides (which incorporate guanine and adenine) might have formed.

    Convincing Evidence for God 2010

  • Furthermore, although Powner and colleagues 'synthetic sequence yields the pyrimidine ribonucleotides, it cannot explain how purine ribonucleotides (which incorporate guanine and adenine) might have formed.

    Convincing Evidence for God 2010

  • She thought she would add various chemical side chains to each of the six carbon atoms, producing dozens of new variants of purine.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • She thought she would add various chemical side chains to each of the six carbon atoms, producing dozens of new variants of purine.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

Comments

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  • What are the purine bases of this acid?

    May 29, 2008