Purines, mostly found in meat, are known to cause gout by raising the levels of uric acids in the body. They are basically the nitrogenous bases that comprise half of the DNA strand; the other half is made up of pyrimidines. Adenine and guanine are purines and they correspond with cytosine and thymine (thymine is substituted for uracil in RNA), which are pyrimidines. Many tests check your body for purine; Kossel's test was the first. The Hoppe-Seyler test is also commonly used.

How To Check For Purines In Urine

Testing urine is the most common way people are checked for purines. This test is called the Hoppe-Seyler test. You must obtain an urine sample, let the water evaporate out of the solution, and take out the dried remains. Take the residue and mix it with lead acetate and ammonia. When all of those have been mixed well, boil them in alcohol. Let the solution evaporate and then pour pure alcohol over it and then add ether to filter out the concentrate. Take the concentrate and add it to a strong acid, lemon juice for example, and chlorine. If it becomes dark green, purines are present.

How To Check For Purines In A Mixture

When adenine and guanine go through metabolism, adenine changes to hypoxanthine and guanine forms into xanthine. Kossel's test is used to check for xanthine and hypoxanthine. To make a Kossel's test, take a mixture of whatever liquid you want to check and mix it with zinc and hydrochloric acid. After the hydrochloric acid and zinc have fully dissolved into the mixture, take a strong base, sodium hydroxide for instance, and add it to the mixture. If the mixture becomes red, purines are present.

Source:

Sambrook, J,; Fritsch, EF, Maniatis, T : Molecular cloning, CSHL Laboratory Press