Hello and welcome to episode number 523 of the nutrition diva

podcast. I'm your host Monica Reinagle and today we're talking about quinine and tonic water. Can

tonic water help you with leg cramps or ward off malaria? We'll find out.

Nutrition TV listener Sherry wrote in this week with a great question.

She wrote, is there anything about quinine that makes it worth drinking in the form of tonic

water?

I know some older people who are convinced that it helps with neurological issues.

Does it have side effects or is it fairly benign even if it's ingested daily? Quinine is a bitter chemical that's extracted from the bark of the

Cincona tree. It's used in tonic water to impart that characteristic bitter

flavor. In fact, I've made my own tonic water using Cincona bark that I bought online.

My recipe involved boiling the Cincona bark

with some other spices like coriander and juniper berries.

And then combining that extraction with citrus juice, grated citrus peals, and sugar,

and straining the whole concoction to produce a syrup.

And then to use it, I would add a tablespoon or two of this syrup to a glass and fill it with plain soda water.

Gin, totally optional. Now making your own tonic water is fun, especially if you like those sort of

do-it-yourself projects that require a bunch of esoteric ingredients or equipment. of could have bought at the store for a buck. Of course, my tonic water tasted nothing like

store-bought tonic water. Some of my friends thought that was a plus. Others frankly

preferred the store-bought version. The other interesting thing about homemade

tonic water is that it's not clear like store-bought tonic water but more the color of

weak tea. But back to Sherry's question, what are the medicinal uses of quinine?

In addition to being used as a flavoring agent, quinine from Cinonebark can also be used as an effective treatment for malaria. Qualiquin is a prescription antimelarial medication that contains quinine sulfate from

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