What is Tonic water?!
Answers: I know tonic water has something called quinine. What is that? Is there any healthful benefits? I'm throwing back a gin and tonic right now, so if there is any healthful stuff in it, Im sure Im cancelling that out.
Quinine comes from the bark of the chinchona tree. The British took it to prevent or combat malaria when they were posted to India. As quinine is very bitter, some Clever Dick mixed his tonic with gin, which can be sickeningly sweet. Add a bit of lime for the acid and you have a great hot-weather drink.
quinine
Quinine used to be used to treat the symptoms of malaria, so tonic water served a double purpose, keep the British in the tropics from the ague (malarial shivers) and cramps and dilute the gin a bit so they didn't get snockered quite so fast.
It also helped some people with restless legs syndrome and leg cramping, as my wife had.
Most or all OTC quinine drugs have been withdrawn from the market in the last few years because there apparently are some problems associated with using it.
Quinine comes from quinces. It looks like a malformed pear and are very tart and pithy. My father had a quince tree in his back yard I remember that his wife would make jelly with them. My mother swore they kept her from getting leg cramps. It is also used for malaria. Here are a few healthful benefits I found on line about quinces.
Medicinal Action and Uses---A syrup prepared from the fruit may be used as a grateful addition to drinks in sickness, especially in looseness of the bowels, which it is said to restrain by its astringency.
The seeds may be used medicinally for the sake of the mucilage they yield. When soaked in water they swell up and form a mucilaginous mass. This mucilage is analogous to, and has the same properties as, that which is formed from the seeds of the flax - linseed.