Come along and Discover the History of Tea Tree Oil
What
is tea tree oil?
I'm sure the crew of the
exploratory ship from Great Britain probably asked a similiar question.
They probably phrased it more along the lines of what is this
plant? The majority of people have lost touch with nature's
remedies.
From
there, he traveled north through the coastal regions of New South
Wales.
In New South Wales he found masses of trees thick with sticky,
aromatic leaves that by boiling rendered a spicy tea.
As the tea tree oil leaves fell
into the waters of the surrounding lagoons they created waters that
today
are still considered
magical healing waters.
History Of Tea
Tree Oil And It's Natives...
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 it helped
combat infection in the wound and also overcome the potential for
further infection caused by the non-sterile mud pack.
Cook and Banks Admire
the Flora and Fauna of Botany Bay Australia
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.
Dr Penfold discovered
tea tree essential oils to be thirteen times stronger an antiseptic
bactericide than carbolic acid, (phenol) 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.
"
The History Of Tea
Tree Oil During The War...
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 essential oil(pure).
The doctors coated the
effected soldiers feet with the pungent smelling oil, and the fungus
was killed within a few days! Tea tree oil was so effective
as a basic antiseptic, that in
World War II soldiers were issued a bottle along
with their first aid kit. They found it effective on all sorts of cuts,
burns, scratches, and infections.
The Modern History
Of Tea Tree Oil, It's Production and Quality Assurance
With modern farming methods, and the fact that the Tea Tree
grows fast, there's plenty of its oil to go around.
There are schools
and organizations that devote valuable time and
effort into developing better tea tree oil, better crops for the
farmer, and research uses and medical applications for us all. So-called
"modern medicine" can't argue with the effectiveness of Tea Tree Oil on
hundreds of maladies.
In Australia, the Australian Tea Tree Oil Industry Association (ATTIA)
has a standard that to be assured that your Tea Tree Oil is 100% pure.
Check to see that if you are buying more than a 15ml bottle,
that's about a half ounce in the USA, that it is packaged in a dark
glass bottle. According to ATTIA, any tea tree oil packaged in a clear
glass or plastic bottle that holds more than 15ml or one half ounce of
oil is not 100% pure tea tree oil!