May 28th: Tonic water

On this date in 1858 Erasmus Bond patented tonic water. 10 things you may not know about tonic water:

1. Although it was patented in 1858, tonic water existed way before that and was drunk in tropical places because the quinine in it helped prevent malaria.
2. The Brits in colonial India added gin to make it taste better and that is where Gin and tonic originated.
3. Quinine tastes quite bitter. The Quechua people in Peru, who used to take quinine as a muscle relaxant to stop them shivering in the cold, would add sweetened water to the ground up bark of the cinchona tree (which quinine is extracted from) to make it more palatable and this was the earliest tonic water.
4. A litre of modern tonic water contains 83mg of quinine. To effectively prevent malaria you need at least 2100mg daily. That's about 25 litres of gin and tonic a day.
5. Quinine turns fluorescent in Ultra violet light. So a gin and tonic will glow in UV light, even in direct sunlight.
6. A can of tonic water has 124 calories; 32g of sugar and 44mg of sodium. It contains no fat, no protein and no vitamins.
7. As with any drug, quinine can have unpleasant side effects, which is why tonic water contains such a small amount these days. For most people it is perfectly safe, but a small number of people are particularly sensitive to it. There is a rare condition which doctors call "gin and tonic purpura", in which the quinine causes a drop in the blood platelet count, internal bleeding and even kidney damage. It is also possible to develop allergies to it.
8. Because quinine is sometimes cut with heroin, drinking a glass of tonic water can get you into trouble if you have to take a drug test, as its presence in someone's system is interpreted as evidence that someone may have been using drugs.
9. Tonic water can ease muscle cramps. Again, that's because of the quinine in it.
10. If you get a Hangover after a night drinking gin and tonic, the gin may not be to blame. Since the 1980s, tonic has been sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, which is more likely to cause a headache than the alcohol!