Quinine Quinine Quinine is a medication used to treat malaria and babesiosis. This includes the treatment of malaria due to "Plasmodium falciparum" that is resistant to chloroquine when artesunate is not available. While used for restless legs syndrome, it is not recommended for this purpose due to the risk of side effects. It can be taken by mouth or used intravenously. Malaria resistance to quinine occurs in certain areas of the world. Quinine is also the ingredient in tonic water that gives it its bitter taste. Common side effects include headache, ringing in the ears, trouble seeing, and sweating. More severe
History of malaria and make them more susceptible to other diseases. Spanish missionaries found that fever was treated by Amerindians near Loxa (Peru) with powder from Peruvian bark (later established to be from any of several trees of genus "Cinchona"). It was used by the Quechua Indians of Peru to reduce the shaking effects caused by severe chills. Jesuit Brother Agostino Salumbrino (1561–1642), who lived in Lima and was an apothecary by training, observed the Quechua using the bark of the cinchona tree for that purpose. While its effect in treating malaria (and hence malaria-induced shivering) was unrelated to its effect in controlling