Tea Tree Oil
Tea tree oil has been found to be useful in removing transient skin flora while suppressing but maintaining normal resident flora (27).

Terpinen-4-ol, alpha-Terpineol and Alpha-pinene are the active constituents in tea tree oil. They were found to be active against Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staph. Epidermidis (28). Studies showed that 32 strains of Propionibacterium acnes are susceptible to the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia, tea tree oil. The minimum bactericidal concentration of tea tree oil for five strains was 0.25% or less while, for the remainder, it was 0.50% (29).
Isolates of Staphylococcus aureus tested were susceptible to the Tea tree essential oil. Of the isolates tested, 64 were methicillin-resistant S. aureus and 33 were mupirocin-resistant (30).

The in vitro antifungal activity of tea oil, the essential oil of Melaleuca alternifolia, has been evaluated against 26 strains of various dermatophyte species, 54 yeast, among them 32 strains of Candida albicans and other Candida sp. as well as 22 different Malassezia furfur strains. Tea tree oil was found to be able to inhibit growth of all clinical fungal isolates (31).

Randomized clinical trial has been performed on 124 patients to evaluate the efficacy and skin tolerance of 5% tea-tree oil in the treatment of mild to moderate acne, and compared with 5% benzoyl peroxide lotion. The results of this study showed that both 5% tea-tree oil 5% benzoyl peroxide had a significant effect in ameliorating the patients' acne by reducing the number of inflamed and non-inflamed lesions (open and closed comedones) although the onset of action in the case of tea-tree oil was slower. Encouragingly, fewer side effects were experienced by patients treated with tea-tree oil (32).


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