Tea Tree Oil: A Must for Your Summer First Aid Kit

More fun outside in the summer can mean more risk of sunburns, insect bites, and scrapes. Next to cayenne pepper, tea tree oil is one of the best herbal remedies to have on hand during the summer for emergencies.

For thousands of years, Australian Aborigines revered the plant. Lagoons where the tea tree leaves would fall into the water were known by the local people as “healing lakes”. Soldiers in World War II were given tea tree oil in their standard issue first aid kits for burns, cuts, scratches, tropical infections and as insect repellent.

Tea tree oil makes a great all-round aid to put on skin, including cuts and scrapes quickly after they first appear, to start disinfecting them. Enjoying time outside can mean uncomfortable itchiness and redness from mosquito bites or red ant bites, which Tea tree oil helps soothe. An insect sting can leave behind harmful bacteria in the wound. Tea tree oil rubbed on the area helps to reduce redness and swelling while destroying the bacteria under the skin.

Tree tea oil can be drying to the skin, so mixing it with a carrier oil like olive oil, coconut oil or even a moisturizing lotion with high quality oils is an easy way to replenish moisture in the skin, while disinfecting the area. As an astringent combined with a moisturizer, tea tree oil helps your skin look and feel more balanced while healing.

We hope that you enjoyed these tips on tea tree oil. Have a safe and happy summer!

Resources

• Antifungal activity of the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree oil) against pathogenic fungi in vitro. Skin Pharmacol. 1996;9(6):388-94. PMID: 9055360

• Journal of Hospital Infection, Volume 56, Issue 4, April 2004
• Susceptibility of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia.Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Vol 35, Issue 3, 1994.

• The ongoing battle against multi-resistant strains: in-vitro inhibition of hospital-acquired MRSA, VRE, Pseudomonas, ESBL E. coli and Klebsiella species in the presence of plant-derived antiseptic oils. J Craniomaxillofac Surg. 2013 Jun ;41(4):321-6. Epub 2012 Nov 29. PMID: 23199627