LATEST NEWS & MEDIA

30 Jun 2010 - Anti-cancer activity of tea tree oil

A report released today by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation has highlighted the positive role tea tree oil (TTO) may play in the future in treating people with skin cancer. More »»

30 Jun 2010 - Productivity Commission Submission

ATTIA has made a submission to the Productivity Commission on RRDCs. More »»

30 Oct 2009 - EMEA submission

The EMEA (European Medicines Agency) committee on herbal medicinal products called for scientific data to create a Monograph for tea tree oil as a Herbal Medicine in August 2009 More »»

19 Jun 2009 - New ATTIA website

Welcome to our new website. If you are a regular visitor you will notice quite a few changes - this will be progressive as the site is developed over the next few weeks. More »»

Other Uses

There are a huge number of uses for TTO that are not in the categories listed:

Question: I would like to buy some TTO to use on a small area of carpet mold. I read some information on the internet that said TTO with Terpinen-4-ol concentrations of greater than 40% would have disinfectant properties.

Answer: Any commercial tea tree oil which quotes a terpinen-4-ol concentration of 30% or better has antibacterial and antifungal properties. In fact almost all tea tree oil sold around the world has a terpinen-4-ol of 38-42%. Wherever you read that oil with more than than 40% terpinen-4-ol has disinfectant properties, was probably just promoting their own brand and specification of oil!

Do NOT use neat tea tree oil on your carpet as it will probably strip out the carpet dye! We suggest that you:

a) Purchase a 'good quantity' of pure Australian tea tree oil - at least 100ml
b) Buy a bottle of methylated spirits.

Add 2 parts methylated spirits to 1 part tea tree oil - this will give you a 33% of tea tree oil solution. Add water to further dilute - I would suggest down to about a 10% concentration. Shake we, load it into a trigger spray bottle and spray on the affected area, deep down into the pile. Test for colour fastness first. Repeat this treatment 2 or 3 times over a week or so.

Almost certainly the mold which is in your carpet is also in the backing and possibly in the underlay. To survive any mould needs moist or humid conditions and unless you treat the cause (eg a leaking pipe, rising damp etc), your problem will definitely return. The tea tree oil solution will inhibit the mould growth, but if you are not able to remove the cause of the infection and /or not able to treat all affected areas you will have constant re-infection occuring from mould spores germinating. It is critical to identify and eliminate any moisture sources completely to stop this happening.