Uses Of Australian Tea Tree
Melaleuca alternifolia / Myrtaceae
The Alban Muller Group
Native to New South Wales in Australia, tea tree is fond of heavy and damp soils.
This evergreen small tree makes thousands of shoots and is very difficult to eradicate. It can be 6 meters high, its trunk is erect, soft, and its bark is thin. The 1.5 cm long leaves are alternate, lanceolate, acuminate; they emit a strong and pervasive smell. In spring, the white flowers are clustered in thick terminal spikes, looking like cotton. The fruit is a ligneous capsule.
The Bundjalungs, local Aboriginals, have used tea tree since remote times, applying cataplasms of crushed leaves against all sorts of skin disorders.
Settlers took over this traditional remedy and extracted an essential oil (tea tree oil) the Australian army held as a “bush remedy” and was given to soldiers as a “cure-all” for every day little troubles: insect stings and bites, leech bites, sunburns, minor sores and more.
In Australia, tea tree antiseptic and healing essential oil is still used in medicine, as an ingredient in cosmetic and personal hygiene products, and in detergents. The traditional production of tea tree oil remained insufficient for a long time, but for the last twenty years, industrial plantations have met the demand.
Tea tree is also called “tea tree” because Captain Cook’s crew, short of tea, used its leaves instead. Neem leaves actually made a “refreshing and spicy tea,” or so it seems.
Biological And Pharmacological Activities
Tea tree essential oil is allotted anti-inflammatory and healing properties. It also presents antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-virus and anti-parasitic virtues. It also has depurative, expectorant and sudorific properties.
Pharmaceutical Uses
Tea tree essential oil heals burns, disinfects wounds, spots, insect stings and bites. It is used against mouth and throat infections and also helps to treat gynecological infections.
Cosmetic
Tea tree essential oil is renowned for its softening, regenerative and purifying properties. It is also considered to present antiseptic and detergent virtues.
Given these properties, it is an ingredient in:
· shampoos for damaged and delicate hair, anti-dandruff shampoo;
· personal hygiene products;
· face care products for skin suffering from acne, sensitive, delicate and mature skin.