first the Question, can Quinine be absorbed through the skin? and would it be dangerous in small amounts like those found in tonic water?
second, this post relates to one I posted over the summer and intended to come back with a relatively quick response but life got in the way.
anyhow, using tonic water (diet to be precise stupid American affinity for sweet stuff) and using condensed tonic water, I made soap and it is blacklight reactive. it glows a light greenish color and looks pretty cool.
so my concern now is if its safe to use as soap or is it just some useless weird substance with no real point like 90% of all blacklight reactive toys.
I used around 3.5 liters of tonic water ( let it simmer on the stove til it condensed) to make around 6-8 standard bars of soap, then made a batch with uncondensed tonic water. the second batch I am not worried about unless there is some messed up reaction to lye I am unaware of. the batch I condensed would contain around 4 -6 times the normal amount.
Tonic water contains about 20 mg of quinine per 8 oz glass, or 2.5 mg per ounce of water. This is, obviously, far smaller than the therapeutic dose of quinine, which comes in an 324 mg pill. cite. There *are *notable adverse effects at therapeutic doses.
So 3.5 liters is a bit under 119 ounces, so 297.5 mg of quinine. That’s just under one therapeutic dose, and you divided that into 6-8 bars, so each bar has in the ballpark of 40-50 mg of quinine. Each use of the soap will have far less quinine than a glass of tonic water.
HOWEVER, there are a couple of assumptions there that need to be examined: first, I’m assuming that heating the quinine and the rest of the soap making process and ingredients don’t affect it in any significant way. Secondly, I’m assuming that topical application has the same or fewer side effects than oral administration. Ask someone who’s gotten lemon juice into a wound if that’s always the case!
Specifically, I would clear the risk of photosensitivity with someone who knows more than I. Since 1986, quinine has been implicated in causing systemic photosensitivity in some patients. Since that pretty directly involves the skin, I wonder if topical application would worsen the risks of that or not. Since I don’t know the biochemistry behind this effect, I can’t begin to speculate on that.
hmmmm food for thought, I didnt have any luck with google, and quinine on the skin but I am hoping someone can with a fair idea comes along, I really dont want to poison somone with a stupid bar of glowing soap but its also pretty silly just to have it laying around if its safe. and my guess is that it is but thats a pure straight outta my arse guess.
