History of Tea Tree Oil

In 1770, Captain James Cook of the British Royal Navy disembarked from the H.M.S. Endeavor at Botany Bay,
Australia – near the eventual site of Sydney. From there, he traveled north through the coastal regions of New South Wales, where he came upon groves of trees thick with sticky, aromatic leaves that, when boiled, rendered a spicy tea. The local inhabitants (aborigines) told him about the healing powers of these trees. The leaves of this tea tree were used for many years by the indigenous peoples of Australia. The Australian aboriginal people used tea tree leaves to treat cuts and wounds. Freshly crushed leaves were applied directly to an injury, and then held in place with a mud pack. The medicinal effects of this poultice were so powerful that they helped combat infection in the wound and also overcome the potential for further infection caused by the non-sterile mud pack.

Tea tree's effects as a folk medicine spread among Europeans as they settled Australia in the 19th century. Gradually the scientific community began to research and document the effects of the plant, especially the bactericidal and germicidal properties of the oil.

The early explorers could not have known that 150 years later, Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) as it was called by Captain Cook, would be used as a medicinal agent for cuts, burns, bites, and a host of skin ailments.

In 1923, Dr. A.R. Penfold, curator and chemist at the Government Museum of Technology and Applied Sciences in Sydney, Australia, conducted a study of the leaves of the tea tree. Dr Penfold discovered their essential oils to be thirteen times stronger an antiseptic bactericide than carbolic acid, considered the universal standard in the early 1900s.

Dr Penfold noted Melaleuca Alternifolia is quite common, and exists in very large areas in the North Coast district of New South Wales. It yields 1.8% of an oil of pale lemon tint, with a pleasant terpenic myristic odor. This is prepared on a commercial scale, and is particularly recommended as a non-poisonous, non irritant antiseptic of unusual strength.

During World War II, an outbreak of foot-fungus became so bad that they had to hospitalize hundreds of Australian soldiers. Nothing seemed to work. One day, a medic who was an aborigine from Australia, remembered about the Tea Tree and got some of the Oil. The doctors coated the effected soldiers feet with the pungent smelling oil, and the fungus was killed within a few days!

With modern farming methods, and the fact that the Tea Tree grows fast, there's plenty of its oil to go around. So-called "modern medicine" can't argue with the effectiveness of Tea Tree Oil on hundreds of maladies. ____________________________________________________________

I have an immense amount of information regarding tea tree oil and how it can aid the human body... Much is on this website. If you have any questions that have been unanswered feel free to send us an e-mail.  I will personally reply with the answers and make suggestions as to how tea tree oil may be able to help your situation.