Melaleuca: Tea Tree Essential Oil

Hello Spring, it’s me again!

We’d like to continue on our writing spree: essential oils for your family home kit. We discussed previously Eucalyptus radiata, Citrus Limon, and Artemesia to name a few. I hope you had a chance to try some of them for yourself. There’s a life before aromatherapy, and a life after discovering aromatherapy. I believe that’s why this individual, à la carte course, is one of our most popular by far. As a matter of fact, most of the information in this article is taken from there, as well as some extra input from our two start tutors: Dr. Vania and Dr. Laure (we’re on a first-name basis).

So this particular essential oil is called Tea Tree or Melaleuca Alternifolia in latin (I’m guessing here) not to be confused with Melaleuca Quiquenervia (Niaouili for the close friends) or Melaleuca cajuputii or Melaleuca leucadendron. These last two, we’ll not cover at all in our series because for some reason there are not part of the essential home kit of essential oils.

Let’s go back to our Tea Tree.

More on the Plant

Melaleuca alternifolia is a small tree that can grow to around 7 m (20 ft) with a bushy crown and whitish, papery bark. The leaves are arranged alternately, sometimes scattered or in whorls. The leaves are smooth, soft, linear in shape, 10–35 mm (0.4–1 in) long and 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. I found a picture for you:

How Can Tea Tree Help?

Here are some of the reasons why Tea Tree Oil is found in our home kit:

Its anti-infectious action on the ENT area has contributed to its notoriety. This is why it has been cultivated extensively in Australia.
It is used in hygiene products and cosmetics.
For dental hygiene in particular, place a drop of tea tree oil with a drop of lemon oil on your toothbrush. This whitens the teeth and also has an antiseptic action (then brush with toothpaste).
This oil is also suggested for athlete’s foot. See our double article on this topic. In fact, in the words of our tutor: “Topical use of melaleuca (alternifolia) essential oil is known to relieve symptoms of conditions such as onychomycosis and athlete’s foot. A multitude of animal tests show the antifungal effect of this essential oil, although there are few clinical studies conducted in humans. “
More subtly, in case of genital infection. As a matter of fact, our other tutor mentions on this subject: “I suggest the use of Melaleuca alternifolia because it is a very easy-to-use EO and involves very little risk of use, unlike M quinquinervia. It is used in local application diluted in a vegetable oil. “

Here are other symptoms / diseases listed in our course and for which Melaleuca alternifolia is recommended:

diarrhea
weak immune system
radioprotective (protects against burns caused by radiotherapy)

How To Use This Essential Oil?

There are several ways to use it:

By breathing it in: 3 to 5 minutes renewable every day as needed.
With diffusion (there are machines for this purpose): sessions of 10 to 20 minutes per half day.
In a massage: dilute up to 5% in a vegetable oil or a neutral massage oil base. How do we know it’s 5%? We count the drops: 5 drops of EO and 95 drops of base oil. If you have a quicker idea, let me know.
In the bath: diluted in advance in a neutral base for the bath (with 5 to 10 drops of EO).
Internally: 1 drop diluted in 15 drops of Solubol then supplemented with a drink, or even 1 or 2 drops in a fat then associated with a recipe. I suggest my spirulina smoothie.