Yes Ebbie, I forgot about papaya. Someone told me about it recently and I bought the ointment.

I scalded myself with steam from the electric jug a couple of months ago - not intentionally, of course. It switched off and I reached in front of it just as a last puff of steam came out. It was pretty bad because I foolishly didn't stop to do proper first aid, and I lived with the consequences of that for about a month.

In the end I used burn gel, antiseptic cream, tea tree oil, aloe vera plant & gel, and papaya ointment. (I forgot about aloe until I Googled burns treatments. I raided my aloe plant which was quietly chugging away in a pot, hidden by other bigger plants. I moved back the other leaves and here was a big crop of aloe, just waiting to help me out. I stuck a couple of little plants in another pot and it is doing nicely. too. It grows by just sticking some of the "leaves" in the soil, as well.)

My scald got better much quicker when I started using the aloe vera & papaya as well as tea tree oil, but the red mark is still there. Now I'm treating that with aloe vera plant and it is slowly fading.

But tea tree oil is always the first thing I use for just about everything.

Helen