Every home needs this! (Tea Tree)

Member Name: grimalkin21

Product:	Tea Tree
Date:	30/08/00 (208 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: amazingly versatile, effective and safe

Disadvantages: beware of poor quality or diluted products

Even the most doubting Thomas, when it comes to alternative treatments, should be convinced by the quite amazing properties of t-tree oil
Scientists are only now just discovering what traditional Australian communities have known for millenia - that t-tree oil can solve a whole host of ills.
You'll see the name spelled and pronounced many different ways, by the way, none are 'correct' although ti-tree and t-tree are becoming more common because tea tree is actually a beverage in Oz (and you certainly wouldn't want to be drinking the stuff we're writing about here!)
One is wary of dubbing anything a miracle cure, but this folk remedy comes pretty close, not least because it's effective even when modern medicine has failed - it is active, for example, against the so-called 'superbug' MRSA and is used widely in hospitals in many countries.
So - how do you get the best t-tree and use it? Firstly you need to check on the bottle that you are, in fact, buying the best type of t-tree oil, which goes by the name melaleuca alternifolia. There are many sub-species, but their properties are less active and less well-known - so don't buy a bottle unless it has that latin name on it somewhere. Then be sure you're buying 100% pure oil, not something diluted or adulterated in any way.
There are many on the market that are fine, I use one from a specialist supplier but those by Australian Body Care and Holland & Barrett are two I personally know are equally as good.
The oil itself is anti fungal, anti-viral and antibacterial. It's also one of very few essential oils you can use directly on the skin (but do check for sensitivity first).
Given those properties, here are some of the things I use it for:
Put a few drops in shampoo against dandruff or to keep unwelcome 'visitors' away;
a few (up to say 10) drops in the bath or footbath for athletes' foot or thrush;
dilute and use to wash
wounds (in fact anywhere you'd use a 'conventional' antiseptic);
add a few drops to a face wash for oily or spotty skin;
apply neat to spots;
apply neat to cold sores (at the first sign of tingling)
apply to mouth ulcers (if you can stand the taste - I dab with the end of a cotton bud)
burn in an aromatherapy burner in a sick room or to help keep flying insects away
use on furniture/carpets to dissipate 'pet' stains or other nasty smells.

A word of warning to end. I have seen this suggested for animal use. Among the active ingredients are turpinenes. Cats especially cannot tolerate these, they are believed to cause liver damage. So while it's OK to use on bed bedding, it shouldn't be used on the actual cat or anywhere it might lick

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