Ringworm and Tea Tree Oil
Answered by: Conrad Richter
Question from: [No Name Given]
Posted on: October 13, 1998

My boss has had ringworm and has applied a prescription medicine and it doesn’t clear-up completely. We teach and are always exposed to such embarrassing maladies (but we love our children and they love and contaminate us). I have bought some tea tree oil for a soap-making project. Would this oil, directly applied to the ringroom site help or harm her? What are the medicinal uses of tea tree oil? I only know what it says with my soap recipe. How is it obtained; plant, tree?

Tea tree oil is very effective against skin infections cause dby the ringworm fungus. Applied directly daily, we have seen it eradicate ringworm within days.

Tea tree oil may cause dermatitis in some sensitive individuals. If the application area shows any reddening, treatment should be stopped.

Tea tree oil is extracted from the tea tree plant. This is *not* the tea plant used for the popular hot beverage. The beverage ‘tea tree’ is known botanically as ‘Camellia sinensis". It is a bush or small tree from Asia. The oil-bearing ‘tea tree’ is an entirely different plant called ‘Melaleuca alternifolia’ from Australia.

We carry seeds or plants of both ‘tea trees’. The tea tree oil plant (M. alternifolia) is very easy to grow as a house plant. The leaves are aromatic just like the concentrated oil and can be used as a tea as an antibiotic just like the oil.

For more information on tea tree oil, there is an excellent book, "Tea Tree Oil: A Medicine Kit in a Bottle" (available from Richters). It covers the many uses of this remarkable herb.

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