Organic Tea Tree Essential Oil

Captain James Cook named this oil when he visited eastern Australia and made a boiled drink of the plant’s leaves. Around that time Australia was an underdeveloped region of indigenous peoples and European convicts. With limited connection to prevailing medicines tea tree oil was a leading solution for many. Popularly used on skin infections and wounds, aborigines also used tea tree bark to make sleeping mats, cradles, water-proofed products, and food containers. A breakthrough for wider distribution came in 1923 when Australian chemist Arthur Penfold documented its antiseptic effects compared to mainland medicine, finding tea tree oil thirteen times more effective. By the 1970s it was widely cultivated and sold. Now a favored essential oil, tea tree’s prevalence is partially due to sustainable cultivation. Tea tree plants takes well to pruning and can actually benefit from routine leaf harvesting. After initial popularity as a leading antiseptic, the advent of penicillin eliminated so