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Nutritional interventions play a vital role in treating gout, and knowledge of the purine content in foods is essential. Because edible insects have been proposed as mini-livestock alternatives, this study aimed to analyse the content of purines (adenine, guanine, xanthine, and hypoxanthine) and their metabolite (uric acid) in two different developmental stages of six insects (Tenebrio molitor, Alphitobius diaperinus, Gryllus assimilis, Acheta domesticus, Locusta migratoria, and Blaberus discoidalis) and meats (chicken, pork, beef, and salmon). Compared to meat, edible insects contained equivalent or higher amounts of total purine (3.23-13.22 g/kg edible insect dry matter vs 3.61-5.53 g/kg meat dry matter) and uricogenic purines adenine + hypoxanthine (1.55-8.86 g/kg edible insect dry matter vs 2.97- 4.91 g/kg meat dry matter). Although the uric acid content was significantly affected by the developmental stage and species, the total purine content did not vary within the stages. In conclusion, the tested insects are unsuitable for a low-purine diet.

Taurine (2-aminoethane sulfonic acid) is an important bioactive compound which certain living organisms cannot synthesise metabolically, thus requiring its dietary supplementation for normal physiological processes. As recent research has shown insects to be a suitable high-quality feed source this study analysed taurine content in ten commercially available insect species (Alphitobius diaperinus, Acheta domesticus, Blaberus craniifer, Blatta lateralis, Gryllus assimilis, Hermetia illucens, Musca domestica, Periplaneta americana, Schistocerca gregaria, and Tenebrio molitor) by an electrophoretic method. Levels of total nitrogen substances (Kjeldahl method) and chitin (spectrophotometric method after hydrolysis to glucosamine) present in the insect samples were also determined. Amongst the samples, G. assimilis contained the highest levels of taurine (121.0±10.2 mg/100 g fresh weight; 436±34 mg/100 g dry matter). On the contrary, the lowest taurine level was detected in S. gregaria (5.4±0.6 mg/100 g fresh weight; 15±2 mg/100 g dry matter). Taurine levels were determined for the whole insect and calculated per protein content. There was no significant correlation between the taurine content and the insect order or developmental stage of insects. Though it has been proved that insect species are variable sources of taurine, the most taurine-rich insect species are comparable with conventionally used feeding ingredients such as fishmeal, animal muscles and visceral tissue.