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Tea Tree Oil

sophia8

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sophia8
Joined
Oct 28, 2003
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On an e-list I belong to, somebody has just posted the claim that Tea Tree oil is so good against infection that in Australia, hospitals inject it intavenaenously (sp?) into people with infections and use it against MRSA.
Any comments from Australians? Or anyone?
 
It has shown utility as an anti-microbial when given topically but I seriously doubt it would be safe given by injection. It sounds as if it could cause phlebitis amongst other things.
Maybe they've studied a purified extract of the oil and tested it by giving injections of it.

In Russia they use viruses to treat MRSA and several other infections and it works.

Wasn't the tea-tree thing mentioned in another thread ?
 
A friend of mine who is a GP said it had been tested out as efficacious, but then that has happened to one or two other "herbal" preparations when trials by the manufacturers were deemed sufficient to secure a product licence, but this was then revoked when more extensive independent trials were done - well, evening primrose oil for a start. So for my money, the jury is still out.

I agree with Jambo about the suggestion of i/v use. Sounds highly improbable.

Rolfe.
 
Remind me never to get sick in Australia...:p

IIRC, tea tree oil has been shown to be effective against staph infections, but I don't think they just inject the oil into someone.

Example

ETA: Isn't tto toxic when injested? I know it can be to animals, pretty sure that it applies to humans as well, in fairly small quantities.
 
jambo372 said:
In Russia they use viruses to treat MRSA and several other infections and it works.
Click to expand...
Come on Jambo, references. What are you talking about? Bacteriophages?

Rolfe.
 
Less so since the Soviet Union collapsed. Most of the pioneering work was in Georgia I believe.
With cheap imports of western antibiotics as part of various trade deals, phage treatment has become less popular.

(Source- anecdotal from a Kazakh Paediatric surgeon).
 
jambo372 said:
Yes, bacteriophages. I'm surprised they stopped using them here but they are still widely used in certain bits of Eastern Europe.

http://socgenmicrobiol.org.uk/news/releases/2005_07.pdf
Click to expand...

Your link doesn't seem to be working.

Eastern Europe. Yet another place I would rather not get sick.

My wisdom teeth were bothering me last summer in Tallinn (Estonia), which scared the hell out of me. As well as widely using bacteriophages, they (thankfully!) don't seem to regulate painkillers as much as they do here.
 
Soapy Sam said:
Less so since the Soviet Union collapsed. Most of the pioneering work was in Georgia I believe.
With cheap imports of western antibiotics as part of various trade deals, phage treatment has become less popular.

(Source- anecdotal from a Kazakh Paediatric surgeon).
Click to expand...
Still, if antibiotics weren't cutting it, then a suitable phage would be a reasonable thing to look at. It's not exactly a state secret (note, I knew what Jambo was talking about before he actually said so), and there's no reason at all not to trial it if one was available. Which makes me wonder what the sensible reason is that we haven't heard about this in relaton to MRSA.

Rolfe.
 
Jas said:
Your link doesn't seem to be working.

Eastern Europe. Yet another place I would rather not get sick.

My wisdom teeth were bothering me last summer in Tallinn (Estonia), which scared the hell out of me. As well as widely using bacteriophages, they (thankfully!) don't seem to regulate painkillers as much as they do here.
Click to expand...

Bacteriophages have next to no side-effects, unlike IV Vancomycin. They could probably be very useful for MRSA if used here and many other infections for that matter.

The only problem is you need a specific phage to lyse a specific strain. Since phages mutate faster than their bacterial prey resistance to phage treatment is no problem, another advantage over drugs.
 
Tea tree oil is a pretty common antiseptic here. I've never heard of it for anything other than topical use; and a quick google finds topical use in MRSA trials too. Wound cleaning and so on.

This group might be interesting: http://www.meddent.uwa.edu.au/teatree/
 
We will start injecting ti-tree oil as an antibiotic about the same time they start injecting kerosene in the UK, or heating oil in the USA.

Hey, Jas! Our medical system is world class, and it costs far less for patients. Mind you, the wait for hospital rooms for elective procedures is something chronic just now - our government wants us to pay a whole lot extra for that... But if you had problem with your teeth, I'm sure we could have found a Black & Decker free somewhere! :)
 
Zep said:
Hey, Jas! Our medical system is world class, and it costs far less for patients. Mind you, the wait for hospital rooms for elective procedures is something chronic just now - our government wants us to pay a whole lot extra for that...
Click to expand...

That was assuming that they were actually injecting tea tree oil (note the :b)

But if you had problem with your teeth, I'm sure we could have found a Black & Decker free somewhere! :)
Click to expand...

That's what I was expecting in Tallinn!
 
sophia8 said:
On an e-list I belong to, somebody has just posted the claim that Tea Tree oil is so good against infection that in Australia, hospitals inject it intavenaenously (sp?) into people with infections and use it against MRSA.
Any comments from Australians? Or anyone?
Click to expand...

I have never heard of it being used IV. It's pretty common for it to be used as an old home remedy for various abrasions, but they label says it shouldn't be used internally.

If a doctor was going to use it IV, I would be pretty suspicious.
 
Tea tree oil is good for ant bites like green ants, bull ants, jumper ants, and eases sand fly itch. Helps mozzie bites. Inject it ? not me. Cheers
 
Tea tree oil is an estrogenic - I think I'd rather take my chances with typical antibiotics and not grow breasts, thanks.
 
Dogdoctor said:
Here is a site with a summary of knowledge on tea tree oil.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-teatreeoil.html
Click to expand...

I was skeptical of this, when we visited a friend in the US in the early 90s. She was helping to market products containing tea tree oil and wasn't impressed, when I explained that a number of ingredients weren't "natural" as claimed e.g. sodium dodecyl sulfate, and that most of the product with therapeutic claims also included known active ingredients. There are certainly antiseptics, which don't leave you smelling strangely, so it seems to be more a marketing exercise. I'd certainly think of having anyone arrested, who contemplated injecting the oil.
 
Injecting iv Tea Tree oil would be sheer madness. It is even toxic if taken per os. I can't believe there are irresponsible doctors injecting it in Australian hospitals.
 
Tea tree oil is way too toxic to inject. The antiseptic ingredients are terpenols: not a good idea for injection except in those with suicidal tendencies.

Bacteriophages would also be pretty tricky to administer IV. What's more, you have to find the right one for every strain of a bacterium infecting a particular patient: not an easy approach in most cases.
 
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