A simple Australian tree may hold the answer to the world's "superbugs."
Tea Tree Oil – History
Tea tree, Melaleuca Alternifolia, native to northern New South Wales, has oil glands dotted along its narrow leaves, which release essential oils when crushed. For thousands of years, Aboriginals living in this area understood and used this oil as a medicine, on wounds, as an inhalant, an infusion and as a poultice. Their history tells of “healing lakes” – lagoons surrounded by Tea Tree into which the oily leaves had fallen.
When James Cook arrived in Australia, with botanist Joseph Banks, they named the plant “tea tree” because they watched the Aboriginals boiling the leaves (probably for gargling a sore throat, rather than preparing a cup of tea!).
Tea Tree Oil Uses During War
In World War II, tea tree oil was standard issue in all Australian Army and Navy first aid kits. The soldiers found the oil effective in cuts, burns, scratches, tropical infections, tinea, and infected wounds, and very useful as an insect and mosquito repellent. Tea tree oil infused bandages were used in all field hospitals to reduce infection in wounds. The growers and harvesters of tea tree were exempt from military service – such was the importance of the product to supply the troops.
Tea Tree Oil Rediscovered
Once the war was over, synthetic antibiotics were heavily promoted and tea tree was forgotten. It was “rediscovered” in 1923 by leading NSW government chemist, Arthur Penfold, who undertook extensive trials with colleagues in Sydney and London, which validated its powerful antimicrobial properties. He found that tea tree oil was 13 times more effective than carbolic acid, the standard antiseptic bactericide at that time, and many hospitals and doctors began to use it to prevent infections.
Tea Tree Oil Safe and Effective
In the 1970s, as more and more pathogens became resistant to antibiotics, tea tree oil was again “rediscovered.”
In the 1990s, Australian scientists, Prof. Tom Riley and Dr. Christine Carson and a team in Western Australia presented valuable research that has continued to this day. They demonstrate that the microbial activity of tea tree oil includes antiseptic, antibacterial, antiviral, anti inflammatory, antifungal and antiprotozoal.
It is safe, and has few and infrequent minor side effects.
No human deaths due to tea tree oil have been reported in the literature.
Tea Tree Oil and MRSA
One of the most important discoveries about tea tree oil has been its ability to combat the difficult Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) bacteria, resistant to most common antibiotics. Many research studies have been and are continuing to be done on this amazing natural product.
Microbiologist Giles Elsom from the University of East London says: 'We've found tea tree oil to be safe and effective in cases where conventional, more toxic, anti-microbial treatments have failed."
Other research findings include:
- “The tea tree preparations were effective, safe and well tolerated and could be considered in regimens for eradication of MRSA carriage”. Journal of Hospital Infection, Volume 56, Issue 4, April 2004
- “Tea tree oil also kills all MRSA strains that have been tested." "Susceptibility of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus to the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia."Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Vol 35, Issue 3, 1994.
MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)
MRSA, (sometimes known as the “Superbug”, is Golden Staph, resistant to most modern antibiotics.
Studies in Britain report more than 7000 hospital-based MRSA infections per year, 30% of which are fatal. MRSA is estimated to have caused 1,652 deaths in 2006 in the UK, up from 51 in 1993. Because the spread of MRSA occurs mainly by hands, one London hospital now uses tea tree oil soap for staff and patient hygiene.
In the US, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in late 2007 estimated that MRSA was responsible for 94,360 serious infections, and associated with 18,650 hospital stay-related deaths in the US in 2005. These figures suggest that MRSA infections are responsible for more deaths in the US each year than AIDS.
Studies report that in one hospital in Texas, 12% of staff were carriers of MRSA; and 15% of the staff in an Illinois emergency room were carriers.
In Australia, in a July 2007 Medical Journal of Australia editorial, Professor Peter Collignon, director of Infectious Diseases Unit and Microbiology at Canberra Hospital, warned that golden staph infections probably caused more deaths in Australia than occurred on the roads.
Professor Grayson, Professor of Infectious Diseases, Austen Hospital, Melbourne, says the cost of MRSA is massive. “….we know that for instance each patient who has golden staph, or MRSA in their blood, costs the system about $25,000 extra than what it would otherwise cost," he said. "That's not to mention, of course, the personal suffering of the patient who has that infection.”
He estimated the cost of a hand alcohol-based hand rub and hand hygiene program at about $2.80 per patient (not per day, per patient).
Brisbane hospitals (Queensland) have halved their MRSA rates by using these programs.
Professor Tunbridge of South Australia, Pathology, has been even more forthright: "We get wrapped up in problems like the pandemic flu or meningococcus, but [golden staph] is the elephant in the room," he said. "It's a problem that won't go away."
MRSA – A Growing World Problem
MRSA is a huge problem in hospitals, among patients with open wounds, catheters and intravenous drips, and weakened immune systems.
Those Most At Risk include:
- Anyone with low immune status – Cancers, HIV/AIDS, transplant patients
- Very young or very old patients
- Diabetics
- IV drug users
Outside hospitals, anyone who spends time in confined living contact with others is also at risk, for examples prisoners, soldiers, college students in dormitories.
We are very lucky that an ancient treatment, tea tree oil, can be of such use today.
References:
Riley TV. "Antimicrobial Activity of the Major Components of the Essential Oil of Melaleuca Alternifolia." Journal of Applied Bacteriology, 1995.
Carson C F. "Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree) Oil: a Review of Antimicrobial and Other Medicinal Properties." Clin Microbiol Rev. 2006 January; 19(1): 50–62.
Dryden M.S. "A Randomized, Controlled Trial of Tea Tree Topical Preparations Versus a Standard Topical Regimen for the Clearance of MRSA Colonization." Journal of Hospital Infection, 2004.
Thursday Plantation Website. "The History of Tea Tree Oil" (accessed January 4, 2010).
Heather Donaldson - Heather Donaldson is a writer, a registered nurse with a diploma in nutrition, an interest in natural medicine, animals and environment.
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