This natural antiseptic essential oil is found only in the leaf of a native tree to Australia, a particularly rare species indigenous to one small part of the world - the North East coastal region of New South Wales. Pure oil is extracted from the leaves using advanced steam technology.

The amazing therapeutic properties of the Melaleuca alternifolia leaves were known for hundreds of years by the Aborigines who frequented a lagoon where leaves from this species had fallen and actually created a 'natural' antiseptic bath. Many stories were told of a "magical healing lagoon". A local Aboriginal tribe - the Bundjalung - would bathe in the lagoon as a treatment for wounds, burns and other ailments.

Melaleuca alternifolia became known as Tea Tree Oil when Captain Cook's crew used the leaves, with their natural and distinctive scent, to brew a 'spicy and refreshing' tea. The oil was used by early white settlers to the area to treat wounds, insect bites and sunburn. During the Second World War, the Australian Army commandeered all supplies of the oil and small bottles were issued to all soldiers as an all-purpose medical treatment.

Properties

Properties of the oil have been well-documented by the medical profession of Australia and reports have been published in the British Medical Journal detailing its natural germicidal and antifungal actions.

Tea Tree Oil is made up of some 150 components - some not even known to man, and this prevents it being compounded in factories. There are at least 110 known species of Tea Trees, but the Melaleuca alternifolia is the only one that acts as an antiseptic (4.2 times the ability of hospital grade antiseptic); an anaesthetic; a bactericide; a fungicide; a pus solvent; and promotes cell and tissue growth. It has a distinctive, natural smell, which fades within about 10 minutes of application.

Melaleuca alternifolia is a very sensitive tree to grow and requires very specific conditions. It is also the only Tea Tree plant to yield the curative oil. It is only in recent years that commercial farming has become possible. Even now Tea Tree Oil is in limited supply, with trees harvested annually, but it takes 12 months for the tree to grow to a height of 5 feet at which time harvesting can take place.

Australian Bodycare is the largest producer and manufacturer to Tea Tree Oil-based products in the world. The Tea Tree Oil produced by Australian Bodycare is 100% natural and penetrates the skin totally, leaving no oily film on the surface