What Is Quinine?
Quinine (chemical formula C20H24N2O2) is an alkaloid found in the bark of the cinchona tree, which is a tree native to Peru.
An alkaloid is a general term for basic, naturally occurring plant constituents that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Quinine is a diastereoisomer of quinidine.
It is an alkaloid that has been used as an antimalarial drug used since the 1600s. It is also effective in the treatment of filariasis and babesiosis. It has also long been used in the tropics to disinfect drinking water and to remove blue-green algae from drinking water.
Quinine has a bitter taste and fluoresces under ultraviolet light. It should be stored in a dark room because it reacts easily to light. The extracted compound exists as a white crystalline powder at room temperature.
Uses of Quinine
Quinine is used primarily as an antimalarial agent. Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium called Plasmodium falciparum, which is transmitted to humans via mosquitoes.
Quinine is toxic to Plasmodium falciparum, and it prevents it from lysing red blood cells, thereby alleviating symptoms. It is also used to treat filariasis and babesiosis. It has antipyretic and analgesic properties and a direct effect on muscle membranes, and is often used in the pharmaceutical field as a remedy for common colds, nocturnal leg cramps, and myotonic disorders.
Quinine is also used as a bittering and flavoring agent due to its extremely bitter taste, for example, in the production of tonic water. The addition of quinine to drinking water has the effect of preventing the growth of microorganisms in addition to its palatability.
Disinfection of drinking water in tropical areas and removal of blue-green algae are also among its uses.
Properties of Quinine
Quinine is an alkaloid extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, a member of the Rubiaceae family of plants.
It is a compound with molecular formula C20H24N2O2 and molecular weight 324.43 g/mol, and is a type of quinoline, a basic cyclic molecule. The structure of quinine is closely related to its bioactivity.
Based on the structure of quinine, artificial antimalarials such as chloroquine and mefloquine were later developed.
Quinine and other cinnamic alkaloids can be used as catalysts for stereoselective reactions in organic synthesis. It is also used as a fluorescent standard in photochemistry because of its constant fluorescence wavelength and high fluorescence quantum yield.
Its absorption wavelength peaks at around 350 nm and its fluorescence wavelength peaks at around 460 nm. The fluorescence at this time shows a bright blue color. Its fluorescence quantum yield is high in acidic solutions, and it shows high fluorescence of φ=0.58 in 0.1M sulfuric acid solution.
Other Information on Quinine
How Quinine Is Produced
Quinine is extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, a natural product. There have been several reports on the production of quinine by chemical synthesis, but all of them are complicated processes and are inferior to isolation from natural resources in terms of economics.
In addition, the advantages of chemical synthesis of quinine for the treatment of malaria have been lost with the development of synthetic drugs (chloroquine, mefloquine, haloquine, etc.), which have a higher safety margin and can be mass-produced.
The extraction process from the plant is as follows:
- The bark from a tree of the genus Cinchona is collected.
- The bark is dried and crushed to a fine powder.
- The bark is soaked in water or alcohol to extract quinine.
- The extract is filtered and concentrated.
- The concentrated liquid is chromatographed to purify the quinine.