Gin and Tonic - Professor Dave's Amazing Molecules 1

The first in a series of podcasts exploring the amazing chemistry of the world around us. Get an insight into the organic chemistry of Professor Dave's favourite alcoholic beverage! Does gin and toic really prevent malaria? To follow the series - subscribe! For more information about Professor Dave, and to watch later videos in the series, check out his YouTube channel (professordaveatyork).

Music by Marillion

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• chemistry
• science
• technology
• education
• alcohol
• professor
• York
• organic

[HunterMann]

Good video but the sound is like you recorded it over a cheap cel phone that is illegally wired through a public phone booth and then sent backwards thru a Skype phone system. Yes, great drink mixing and all, but havig bad sound just makes it go sour.

[ProfessorDaveatYork]

@HunterMann Yeah - it was recorded on a mobile phone - best equipment I had at the time - but now I have a much better video camera so my latest (and future) videos have much higher quality sound and images.

[lilmissglentoran]

Nice video but I WILL have to haul you up on the issue on quinine and antimalarials as I feel this is an important topic. They stopped using quinine alone as it didn't work and there is a problem with resistance with most antimalarial drugs.

But I do know that they are attaching metals on drugs to overcome resistance now (perhaps a topic for the future?)

Sorry about the moan but I am a herbalist/ drug chemist and the herbal name for the bark (just check on that)

[ProfessorDaveatYork]

Hi - of course you are correct about quinine resistance. Quinine is still OK to treat malaria in some countries (e.g. Mexico) but in many others it was superseded quite a few years back as there is quite a lot of resistance.

Artemisinin is one of the new gold standard drugs - originally extracted from a chinese plant, and known for millennia in chinese medicine.

However, malaria is a big topic and I was limited to 10 minutes and mainly focussing on gin and tonic!! :-)

[lilmissglentoran]

I'm writing a dissertation on arteminsin and the metals for my higher diploma in Herbalism as well as being a malaria specialist, I am also a neurological specialist so I have my doubt on these treatments.

For people's reference the chinese name of the herb is Qinghaosu. Papers in front of me are:

Science Vol 320 P330

Br J Clin Pharmacol Vol 61(1) p 666-670

Trends in Pharmacological Sciences vol 29(10) p520

Sorry to butt in but when I you mentioned quinine, I was a tad disgruntled!

[ProfessorDaveatYork]

Yeah, malaria is tricky.

There is resistance against the classic drug quinine (and analogues) in many places.

Mefloquine (lariam) is ok, but there is some resistance and it can cause significant pyschological problems.

Artemisinin works well against full-blown cases of malaria - but should not be used on its own to prevent infection (as it is less effective and resistance can develop).

This is why funding bodies such as Gates foundation are still pouring a lot of money into malaria research.

[Nykytyne2]

Using alcohol to teach chemistry?? I had to subscribe.

[lilmissglentoran]

@HunterMann

But you can also use other "bitters" for malaria 8) The main aspects to herbalism is that you clear the body and not use x, y, z and z for it. You can still get alcoholic bitters for medicinal purposes!

[HunterMann]

@lilmissglentoran I seriously doubt that people from malarial villages are going to be seeking their medical advice by searching YouTube for a video about gin & tonic mixology...

[HunterMann]

@Nykytyne2 He calls it pretty much the perfect gin & tonic, yet he pours the gin very short. If the drink isn't half gin I am moving to another planet. Notice at 2:12 he say "a canatonic", sounds medical to me... Oh, and the origin of rubbing the glass's rim with lime is to kill germs since people often lacked clean water to wash the glasses...

[quezacotl72]

So British it almost hurts

[olliehm]

Not a chemist, or even in a profession remotely connected to it, but found this very interesting. Cheers.

[lilmissglentoran]

ACT? Arteminsin combination therapies?

I've gone on a tangent long enough!

Another interesting fact is that the citric acid in your lime is also an antibacterial as well!