Re: Melaleuca ("tea tree") oil

Q - Thanks for the link to the study. The info is interesting, but, as is so often the case with research on a wide variety of products (brands, formulations, etc.), it's hard to know how to interpret it as applicable to a specific brand/quality of oil. E.g., it says in one place that many tea tree oil products contain large quantities of alcohol.   It also refers to the various compounds (e.g. cineole and terpinine) which, depending on their preponderance in the formula, can make the product more soothing (or healing) or more caustic. It seems that they gathered together an array of research findings on various melaleuca oil products and also did some research on particular formulations. But this does not answer questions about the particular products I use (one being a higher quality, more Terpinine and less Cineole, than the others) for various purposes. Nothing I read in that study suggested to me that this herbal product is necessarily of more questionable value or greater risk than most other commonly used health care products (whether aspirin, acetomenophine, antibiotics, cortisone cream, etc.) Then again, there are substances that don't bother most people but make me break out - and vice-versa.