Spotlight On…Tea Tree Oil

Botanical Name: Melaleuca alternifolia

Part of plant used: Leaves

Method of extraction: Steam distillation

Tea Tree EO, like Lavender, is a very popular essential oil. It is best known as being a strong disinfectant, and with a trend towards more natural, environmental safe cleaning methods, products containing Tea Tree oil have become very popular lately.

If you are interested in using cleansers made with Tea Tree, my suggestion is that you should buy a commercial prepared product rather than try to make your own at home. Simply adding Tea Tree EO to a bottle of plain water will not do the trick. Essential oils are not soluble in water – in other words, they don’t mix. Shaking the bottle may disperse droplets of EO throughout the water, but when you spray a surface with the mixture, you wouldn’t be getting even coverage of Tea Tree – it would be mostly plain water with a microscopic drop of Tea Tree oil here and there. Furthermore, water is a breeding ground for bacteria (even if it is distilled), so you would also need to add a preservative, or you would be spraying germs on germs! Some people think that the Tea Tree oil itself is antiseptic enough to keep bacteria from growing in the water. But, as we’ve learned, the EO never really mixes with the water, so it cannot impart its antiseptic properties into it.

Tea tree is great for clearing up stuffy noses and loosening chest congestion (along with rosemary). Add a few drops to the water reservoir of your humidifier, or into a bath or steam shower.

Many people have had success using Tea Tree EO to treat acne.  Simply use a clean Q-tip to apply a small drop to the pimple.  I haven’t tried this remedy myself, so if anyone has experience with it, let us know how it worked out for you!

Safe for everyone, including babies as young as six months (with proper dilution).