History
The word purine (purum uricum) was coined by the German chemist Emil Fischer in 1884. He synthesized it for the first time in 1899. The starting material for the reaction sequence was uric acid (8), which had been isolated from kidney stones by Scheele in 1776. Uric acid (8) was reacted with PCl5 to give 2,6,8-trichloropurine (10), which was converted with HI and PH4I to give 2,6-diiodopurine (11). The product was reduced to purine (1) using zinc-dust. Purines are also much larger than pyrimidines.
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