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Quinine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Quinine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Available as
Capsule
Sold as
2 products — Quinine Sulfate and Qualaquin
Prescription?
Prescription only
Generic available?
Yes
What the pharmacy pays
about $23 for a 30-count supply — not your price

Every quinine product we track (2)

Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.

Quinine products
#DrugRatingPharmacy pays
1
Quinine Sulfate
66/100$23View →
2
Qualaquin
62/100$23View →

What quinine pills look like

Imprint codes, colour and shape from the FDA’s labelling data. Match the imprint on your pill — or search any imprint.

Quinine pill imprints
ImprintStrengthColourShape
LU;Y51324 mgwhitecapsule
93;3002;93;3002324 mgwhitecapsule
AMNEAL;811324 mgwhitecapsule
201324 mgwhitecapsule

How long quinine keeps

No quinine label we read sets a separate limit for after opening, but they do specify how it must be stored — and the stability behind any date assumes those conditions.

Quinine and breastfeeding

From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.

Because of the low levels of quinine in breastmilk, amounts ingested by the infant are small and would not be expected to cause any adverse effects in breastfed infants. The dosage in milk is far below those required to treat an infant for malaria. However, quinine should not be used in mothers with an infant who is glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficient. Even the relatively small amounts of quinine in tonic water ingested by the mother have caused hemolysis in G6PD-deficient infants.

Full LactMed record for quinine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider instead

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised February 17, 2020. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.

What people report to the FDA about quinine

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 3,910 reports naming quinine, and the FDA flagged 89% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:

  • nausea265 reports
  • dyspnoea233 reports
  • vomiting231 reports
  • diarrhoea218 reports
  • renal failure199 reports
  • dizziness193 reports
  • fall185 reports
  • fatigue181 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean quinine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label.

Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 26, 2026.

Related calculators

How long it stays in your system →

Frequently asked questions

Can you take quinine with other medicines?

It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run quinine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.

What brand names is quinine sold under?

We track 2 quinine-containing products in the U.S.: Quinine Sulfate and Qualaquin. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.

What forms does quinine come in?

Across the brands we track, quinine is currently marketed as capsule, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.

Is there a generic quinine?

Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic quinine product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.

Cite this page
APA
pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Quinine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/quinine
MLA
“Quinine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/quinine.

We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.

Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.

Read the full FDA label for quinine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.