Tea tree oil is a very strong essential oil useful in natural home remedies because of its potent antifungal, antibacterial, and antiviral properties.
So potent that it comes with VERY bad side effects if not used with care and caution. This potency may have sent you searching or information on how safe tea tree oil is to use for adults and children.
While you’re browsing for a natural remedy to bug bites, insect repellent, hair care, infections, etc., most writers will put a small disclaimer in their articles about the TOXIC side effects of tea tree oil if not used correctly. This small disclaimer is often missed and the rise of tea tree oil poisoning is growing.
This leads me to dedicate an entire article on tea tree toxicity
The importance of tea tree oil education is so essential due to its ability to cause toxicity at small doses. Just a half a cup of tea tree oil consumed by a young boy caused coma. Only a few drops consumed can cause central nervous system depression.
Babies and children experience more serious side effects at smaller dosages.
The truth is, tea tree oil is extremely toxic if consumed or too much is absorbed through the skin.
There can be allergic reactions causing anaphylaxis as well.
I recommend reading detailed case studies and further toxicology caused by tea tree oil on TOXNET.
Because I’m a lab tech and need to test things out on my own, I decided to find out for myself how toxic tea tree oil can be and what kind of reaction it can cause.
I put 2 drops in a cup of water and swished it in my mouth and spit it out to see the nervous system side effects on myself.
I didn’t swallow this mixture with ONLY 2 drops but 10 minutes after swishing tea tree oil and water in my mouth, I started to feel dizzy. Real dizzy! I had to lay down for about 8 hours before I felt normal again. It felt like I was poisoned and that’s exactly what happened! My heart started racing higher than normal and felt a little tunnel vision. I didn’t fully recover until the next day.
That was a 2 drop tea tree oil experiment on my own nervous system even diluted with water and not swallowing. This is how I knew for SURE I needed to hide the tea tree oil from my kids. This is serious. Do not try this experiment on your own as I already suffered for you to really understand the serious side effects.
This is typical behavior from a lab tech if you happen to have any lab tech friends 🙂
What is the good from tea tree oil if there is potential for toxicity?
Even after my tea tree oil poison experiment, I still use tea tree oil for my alternative natural home medicine uses.
The essential oil is potent and that is why I keep it around for those health emergencies needing something powerful to cure it. Here is a list of what I use tea tree oil for and how I use it:
- One drop of tea tree oil mixed with my natural insect repellent
- One drop of tea tree oil mixed with olive oil for spider bites and other skin infections
- One drop of tea tree oil mixed with coconut oil for dandruff
- One drop of tea tree oil mixed with vinegar and water for household cleaning and mold removal
Notice the One drop used for these natural home remedies using tea tree oil. I never use more than one drop, you don’t need to. A bottle should last you longer than its expiration date so be sure to replace tea tree oil bottles when they expire. Additional side effects may happen after the oil is used passed their expiration date.
NOTE: A skin test on the back of the hand with one drop or mixed with olive oil if you know you are sensitive to allergies is important to do before continued use.
Tea tree oil works so well for the 4 remedies I listed above and that is why I keep this highly toxic bottle in my house. It works great on fungal and bacterial infections where conventional methods fail and have their own side effects as well.
Important Takeaways about Tea Tree Essential Oil
- Use the one drop rule
- ALWAYS do an allergy skin test on your hand before future use
- Keep locked up and away from children
- NEVER use orally
- ALWAYS mix with a carrier oil like olive oil and coconut oil
- Replace bottles before their expiration date
If you are someone who has experienced poisoning from tea tree oil or you have found some great uses that have not caused poisoning, please share your story with us. People learn a great deal from personal stories and we would love to read them 🙂
The New Health Cycle 
I had toenail fungus and tried everything under the sun & nothing seemed to work. I started applying the tea tree oil on my toenail daily after my shower and within a couple of weeks it was gone. No side effects and no harsh reactions. I think it’s great!
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Tea tree oil is perfect for toenail fungus! It’s safe on the skin or nails as long as you’re not allergic. Just don’t drink it. I still dilute it with olive oil when putting it on my skin just incase it’s too potent for me.
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Have tinea versicolor. Have tried everything. Now trying tra tree oil mixed with coconut oil. Made 2 tablespoons mixed with 7 drops tea tree. We’ll see if it works.
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Please share if it works for you. There are so many people with skin conditions who want to know what works but also want to be cautious of possible reactions. I do wish you relief and really hope it works for you.
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Highly allergic. Broke out in rash which morphed into raging skin irritation all over body for over a week so far. Itching day and night. Terrible time. Just used a Few drops without diluting on my skin.
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I have type 2 diabetes. 3 years ago I started losing a LOT of hair. I am elderly, but always had thick hair until this happened. I tried everything under the sun. Then I happened on an article about hair loss that talked about demodex mites that live in most peoples hair follicles without causing problems. But in people with compromised immune systems, they can get out of control and cause massive hair loss and itching (mostly at night). The treatment was Tea Tree Oil. Lab/researchers, whatever, had tested this and found that TTO killed these things within 4 minutes! And I looked up more than just that one article as well. Needless to say, I bought a bottle and a long eyedropper and proceeded to coat my poor scalp once or twice a week. Undiluted. Left it on overnight. no bad side effects happened. Guess I’m not allergic. End result, my hair quit falling out in gobs in my brush,or caught in the tub drain and it has thickened back up considerably. It’s growing long again. I will never be without TTO. I will use it the rest of my life, to keeps those buggers in check! It was a miracle for me, really. It was just coming out in big handfuls every time I put a brush to my head. I remain a fan for life.
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This is a very helpful way to use Tea Tree Oil that is safe and effective. Thank you so much for sharing!
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Its not real well known but I found out when I contracted MRSA from a neighbor
Who has chronic infection issues and I had never seen MRSA infection until about 7 months ago when I had a boil develop on my lower leg (which really worries me seriously being diabetic ). Well last week it not only was still very bad but I had more boils develop even after antibiotics and diligent wound care. I had a friend tell me that using the following would cure it.
Mix 1 teaspoon of activated charcoal with a 1/4 teaspoon of olive oil that you’ve added a drop of tea tree oil to. Use as a poultice on boils or infected skin. Cover with a bandage to keep clothing and bedding from getting soiled with the charcoal.
I am healing now quite quickly to my surprise and wanted to share this in case others like me have an issue! Ill be keeping a bottle around for sure after this!
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Always make sure you are getting 100% real Australian tea tree oil. There is a lot — I mean A LOT — of crap out there. I’m an Australian tea tree farmer and involved at a global level in the tea tree oil industry. I see issues with adulteration every day. There are overseas chemical factories (obvious ones, no need to name) which have never seen natural plant material coming through their doors, producing what they call “tea tree oil”. Pure tea tree oil should never have camphor in it. Pure tea tree oil should never have trans-pinocarveol in it. Both of these components are by-products of Camphor Laurel and Pine Oil fractionation processes – effectively industrial waste. We commonly see these two components and more than 20 others in adulterated retail samples claiming to be tea tree oil. We have tracked over 200 metric tons of this crap into the US – every year. It’s often sold via online retailers. This chemical soup can be dangerous (unsafe) and it can also be ineffective. Both cause irreparable harm to the reputation of what good, pure quality tea tree oil can do. My advice? Purchase from a reliable retailer – don’t buy the cheapest – and always look for Australian, grown and produced to rigorous quality control systems. You should still NEVER drink/consume real tea tree oil, but using a couple drops as a mouth gargle should not cause such a reaction if the tea tree oil is real. Thank you.
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