Learn English – Where does the “quint” in “quintessential” come from

There is a nice explanation on ask.yahoo.

British fugitives in the 1800s would rub a herring across their trail, thereby diverting the bloodhounds that were hot in pursuit. In the 1920s, American investment bankers started calling preliminary prospectuses "red herrings" as a warning to investors that the documents were not complete or final and could be misleading.

Edit: Also there's this wiktionary entry

It originated from a news story by English journalist William Cobbett, c. 1805, in which he claimed that as a boy he used a red herring (a cured and salted herring) to mislead hounds following a trail; the story served as an extended metaphor for the London press, which had earned Cobbett's ire by publishing false news accounts regarding Napoleon.

It's not -tine, but rather -ine, from the Latin -inus, in turn from the Greek -inos, meaning "of", "pertaining to", "made from" or "similar to".

Ovaltine < Ovomaltine < Ovo (Latin: egg) + malt + -ine.

Creatine < kreat- (Greek: stem of kreas) + -ine.