Herbal Encyclopedia

Common Medicinal Herbs For Natural Health

Tea Tree

By

Botanical and Common Names

  • Family Myrtaceae
  • Melaleuca alternifolia (Tea Tree Oil)
  • Other species that provide valuable oil:
  • Melaleuca leucadendron (Cajuput, White Tea Tree, Swamp Tea Tree, Paperbark Tree, White Wood)
  • Melaleucea viridiflora (Niauli is a broad-leafed paperbark tree.)
  • Melaleucea linariifolia has an essential oil that is very similar to tea tree.

Cautions

  • None listed.

Description

Native to Australia and Tazmania, tea tree is now widely used in Europe, Australia, and North America. The evergreen shrub is related to the myrtle tree, reaching over twenty feet in height and having a papery bark, pointed needle-like leaves, and heads of yellow or purplish flowers that when open, resemble a puffy, feathery mass. The tree flourishes wild in swampy areas in northern New South Wales and Queensland, but is now extensively cultivated, especially on plantations in Asia and other parts of the world. The Tea Tree produces an essential oil that has unique infection-fighting properties. The leaves and small branches are picked throughout the year and distilled to produce the essential oil.

History

Native Australians have used tea tree oil for centuries, but it was unknown to the rest of the world until the late 1700s when Captain James Cook led an expedition there and began experimenting with the leaves. The crew brewed a lemon-flavoured tea from the leaves and added it to a beer they had concocted. They also gave it its name as a result. On later voyages, a botanist who travelled with Captain Cook observed how the aborgines used the shrub to heal infected wounds. But this information did not make an impact on the rest of the world until the 1920s when a Syndey research chemist, A. R. Penfold, studied the oil and discovered its antiseptic properties. By 1925, Penfold determined that the oil was twelve times as potent as phenol, the standard by which all antiseptics were measured at the time.

Australian pharmacists and doctors then began dispensing tea tree as a front-line antiseptic. Bushmen and adventurers would not enter the wilderness without it. It was standard issue for first aid kits for British and Australian soldiers stationed in the tropics during WWII, and proved to be so valuable that workers who processed it were exempt from military duty. As with all things, demand soon quickly outstripped supply and interest waned after the advent of penicillin. Tea tree oil was almost forgotten; but, with the growing problems of antibiotic-resistant organisms, it has, once again, made a revival. Demand for the oil has increased from about ten tons in the early 1990s to more than two hundred tons today.

Extensive research in the 1960s showed that tea tree was very effective in treating a broad range of infectious conditions, especially fungal skin conditions, as well as warts, acne, and vaginal yeast infections.

Key Actions

  • strongly antimicrobial
  • antiseptic
  • immune stimulant

Key Components

  • volatile oil (percentages are variable, but basically -– terpinen-4-ol [40%], gamma-terpinene [24%], alpha-terpinene [10%], and cineol [5%])

Medicinal Parts

Leaves, essential oil

Scientists have identified eighty of the estimated one hundred compounds in tea tree oil, and a few are unique to the plant. Some of these compounds are active against viruses, bacteria, and fungi.

Most of these compounds are chemicals classified as either terpene hydrocarbons (pinene) or oxygenated terpenes (mostly 60% terpinen-4-ol plus cineole). Terpinen-4-ol is a powerful germacide, fungicide, and significantly antiseptic but well tolerated by the skin. Cineole, on the other hand, can irritate the skin of some people, but has expectorant and antiseptic properties. Cineole is also found in eucalyptus. It is these antiseptic properties that make it especially valuable in treating various skin infections.

It is especially useful as a hospital disinfectant as it kills antibiotic resistant strains of Staphylococcus.

Testing has found it effective against many other organisms as well, including all strains of candida except Epidermophyton floccosum, all sixty-four strains of Malassezia furfur, and eighty other types of disease-causing fungi. The following is a list of organisms that tea tree oil has proven its effectiveness against: aspergillus, bacteroides, Clostridium, Cryptosporidium, Diptheroids, E. coli, Enterobacter, Fusobacterium, Gonococcus, Hemophilus, Herpes viruses, Meningococcus, Microsporium, Peptococcus, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Spirochetes, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Trichinosis, Trichophyton.

Remedies

Crushed leaves have long been used in hot water as an inhalent to relieve sinus congestion.

Infusions made from crushed fresh leaves are used to treat coughs, colds, and skin infections. They are used internally to treat glandular fever and postviral fatigue syndrome (ME). They can also be used in household cleaning wash water, as well as in the laundry or diaper soaking water.

Oil or cream can be applied to athlete’s foot and ringworm, as well as to corns, warts, acne, boils, nail fungi, infected skin sores, burns, scrapes, wounds, insect stings, and many other skin conditions.

Mouthwash is used for oral infections and gum disease, as well as a gargle for sore throats.

Suppositories are used to treat vaginal infections.

Lotions, creams, or compresses ease the pain and itchiness of skin irritations.

Commercially prepared products available are as follows: pure oil, creams and ointments, mouthwashes, toothpicks, germicides, shampoos and conditioners, hand creams, bar soaps, pet shampoos, suppositories, lozenges, dental floss, massage oil, and deoderant.

Traditional Uses

Conditions where tea tree oil has proven useful and listed according to body region:

  • Head and Neck: dandruff, seborrhea, psoriasis, eczema, ringworm, furunculosis, razor cuts, mastoiditis, head lice, cradle cap, acne, and blackheads. Note: Nizoral has long been used to treat psoriasis of the scalp, but long term cures do not take place. In addition, it carries risk of systemic toxicity especially that of the liver. Tea tree does not cause this concern. It also produces fewer side effects than benzoyl peroxide, used to treat acne.
  • Face: razor cuts, acne
  • Mouth, Throat, Ears: controls oral bacteria when a few drops are added to a gargle and helps heal canker sores, cold sores, pyorrhea, cavities, toothaches, ear infections (outer and middle ear), sore throats, colds, thrush, halitosis; promotes the healing of gum disease, canker sores, and herpes sores
  • Hands: paronychia, fingernail fungus
  • Joints: arthritis, gout
  • Respiratory system: bronchitis, sinusitis, croup, tonsillitis
  • Urinary tract: cystitis
  • Rectum: shrinking hemorrhoids and reducing pain, including that of rectal fissures
  • Genitals: herpes and warts, vaginitis (including trichomonas), penile discharge, excessive odour, jock itch, chronic candidiasis
  • Feet: bromhidrosis, toenail fungus, ingrown toenails, calluses, corns, athelete’s foot.
  • Skin: kills microbes associated with skin infections, including bacteria or viruses in wounds; such fungal infections as ringworm or athlete’s foot, nail fungus, thrush, and jock itch ; and eczema, psoriasis, ringworm, boils, cuts, abrasions, scrapes, puncture wounds, bed sores, varicose ulcers, surgical lesions, burns, itchy or chapped skin, scabies, pilonidal cysts, impetigo, dermatitis, allergy rashes (including poison ivy, oak, and sumac), chicken pox and shingles, and animal bites (including those by dogs, cats, snakes, insects, and humans)
  • Joints: eases muscle and joint pain and inflammation

Also see our Surivon products which use tea tree essential oil to help symptoms of cold sores, shingles, herpes, and other antiviral skin care needs.

Honey

By

HoneyCommon Names

  • Miel (French, Spanish)

Although not an herb, honey is a plant by-product and used medicinally around the world. It is an integral part of herbs and just as healing. However, only wildflower honey should be used as the clover or alfalfa honey, common in grocery stores, comes from heavily sprayed crops and does not have the broad-spectrum healing activities found in the natural honey obtained from multiple-plants that have not been sprayed with various chemicals. In addition, many commercial honey growers supplement their bees’ food with sugar, as well as adding it to the final product, which dilutes the medicinal action of the honey. In good, strong, medicinal type honey, it should slightly burn or sting the back of the throat when taken undiluted.

Cautions

There are three instances where honey can be harmful.

  • 1) Bees occasionally get into poisonous plants. Although very rare, it does happen. Therefore, it is best to obtain honey from a reputable dealer.
  • 2) Occasionally, honey may contain botulism spores that can be dangerous to children under the age of one year. After that age, their digestive systems are more fully formed and are able to rid themselves of the occasional spore that may be present in uncooked honey.
  • 3) In rare instances, people who are allergic to bee stings will also react to honey or other bee products.

Description

Many people are under the impression that “bees make honey”. They actually collect the nectar made by plants and process that nectar into what we know as honey. Plants produce the nectar in glands located in the center of flowers, which pump out liquid sugars made in the leaves. The bees collect the nectar by sucking up the liquid into their stomachs and fly back to the hive to regurgitate the nectar into the empty cells of the honey comb. Other bees then fan the collection to evaporate the water contained in the nectar until it becomes one-quarter of the original size. Still other bees produce wax and seal the cells after the evaporation process. Along with the sugars produced in the leaves, honey contains other ingredients characteristic of individual plant species, making it light or dark with varying flavours, depending on the plant from where the nectar was collected.

History

Prehistoric cave paintings show that honey was used as both a food and a medicine. Pictures from Switzerland and Spain also depict men hanging down cliffs in order to gather honey from beehives. One Spanish picture shows a man with his hand in the hive while out-of-scale bees swarm around him.

The earliest written records, dating from 4000 BCE, indicate that the Egyptians were loading hives on boats and sailing up the Nile to places where flowers were beginning to bloom. Their large numbers of papyrus scrolls and hieroglyphic tablets indicate that the Egyptians were very fond of honey. The bee was their symbol of power and health and was put in on everything from architecture to jewelry. At least one pharaoh had a bee stamp which was placed next to his signature on official documents. Egyptian doctors saw honey as the ultimate healing substance.

Honey found in an excavated tomb of more than 3,000 years ago, showed that it was perfectly usable.

No one knows exactly how or why, but honey is a natural bactericidal. This is one reason that bomb shelters, during WWII, were stocked with honey and wheat germ. People could survive indefinitely on these two items alone, and their food supply would not spoil.

Greek bees still produce some of the best honey in the world collected from wild mountain thyme and oregano.

During the Middle Ages, straw hives were often kept on the walls of fortified cities where bees would come after collecting honey in the surrounding countryside. In cases of attack, the city’s defenders could hurl the hives down on attackers’ heads. They used the excitable black bees of northern Europe. Once inside the helmet of an armor-clad knight, the battle was often decided right then and there.

Key Actions

  • antibiotic
  • antiviral
  • anti-inflammatory
  • anticarcinogenic
  • antianemic
  • antifungal
  • antiallergenic
  • cell regenerator
  • expectorant
  • immune stimulant
  • laxative
  • tonic

Key Components

One pound of average wildflower honey contains more than seventy-five different compounds including the following:

  • complex assortment of enzymes
  • organic acids
  • esters
  • antibiotic agents
  • trace minerals (calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, sulfur, chlorine, potassium, iodine, sodium, copper, manganese)
  • proteins (1.4 grams)
  • vitamins (A, B, C, D, E, K)
  • hydrogen peroxide
  • formic acid
  • carbohydrates
  • hormones
  • antimicrobial compounds
  • (1,333 calories, as compared with white sugar at 1,748 calories in one pound)

Traditional Uses

Many in Europe attribute their longevity to honey which, to the westerner, seems incredible since it is only “sugar”. However, honey is no ordinary sugar as it also contains the substances from the original plant, making it vastly more healing. Schar describes a trip to northern Spain where he found a honey seller whose shop offered more than twenty different kinds of honey classified according to the various plants from where they were collected; and, beside each, there was a listing of its medicinal uses. For example, the honey collected from sage plants was to be used for bronchial infections, while that collected from thyme was best for bladder infections and weaknesses.

Honey has been used effectively in clinical settings for the treatment of fist-sized, decubitus ulcers extending to the bone, as well as for first, second, and third degree burns. Complete healing has been reported without the need for skin grafts and with no infection or muscle loss. It can be applied full strength to such conditions, covered with a sterile bandage, and changed daily. Poultices can also be used to draw poisons from bites and stings and to clean or infected wounds. A thick layer is needed to draw effectively; but, if it is too thin, it can be thickened with cornstarch. When the wounds are clean, honey acts as a healer. This also is the same procedure for infected wounds, ulcerations, and impetigo. Garlic honey can also be applied directly to infected wounds which will help clean up the area of infection.

As an antiseptic, honey is also a drawing agent for poisons or infected wounds and has outperformed antibiotics when it came to treatments for stomach ulcerations, gangrene, surgical wound infections, surgical incisions, and the protection of skin grafts, corneas, blood vessels, and bones during storage and shipment.

It is exceptionally effective in respiratory ailments. One Bulgarian study of almost 18,000 patients found that it improved chronic bronchitis, asthmatic bronchitis, chronic and allergic rhinitis, and sinusitis.

It is an effective treatment for colds, flu, respiratory infections, and a generally depressed immune system. Whereas sugar shuts down the immune system, a good quality honey will stimulate it into action.

Honey is often added to herbal teas and syrups, not only to make them more palatable, but for added healing power. The sugars in honey are predigested, making them easily available as energy to the weakened body.

Honey used from the immediate vicinity will help cure allergies to plants.

For educational purposes only.
This information has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
This information is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.