Tea Tree Oil is effective against Acne

Tea tree oil (Melaleuca alternifolia) has a long history of use as a natural treatment against bacterial infections, and has been the subject of a large number of research studies. Many of these studies were performed on bacterial cultures [e.g. see (1)]. In its most basic form, different kinds of cultured bacteria are exposed to tea tree oil and the toxicity of the tea tree oil to the bacteria is evaluated. One of the easiest ways to do this is to look at the replication rate of the bacteria. This is a measure for how quickly the bacteria can reproduce in the presence of the tea tree oil. While from such studies it is clear that tea tree oil is effective against bacteria in the lab, such experiments are not necessarily indicative of it’s effectiveness to fight infections in patients.

There are a few published clinical studies that have looked at the effectiveness of tea tree oil to treat infections in humans. Particularly relevant for the treatment of acne is a study that was published in 2007 by Enshaieh and co-workers (2). They studied a group of 60 patients with mild to moderate facial acne vulgaris. The patients were randomly divided into two groups of 30 patients. One group was treated twice daily with a 5% tea tree oil gel and the other with a placebo (the gel without tea tree oil).

The tea tree oil and placebo gels had the same color, texture, and packaging. Neither patients, nor medical staff knew which patients had active gel and which patients had placebo gel. Treatments were continued for 45 days and patients were evaluated every 15 days for changes in acne severity and total number of lesions.
Some of the results are shown in the figure [adapted from (2)] . The tea-tree oil treated group clearly showed dramatically increased efficacy against all three types of acne lesions (comodones, papules and pustules) as compared to the placebo group. Studies like this show the promise of tea tree essential oils n the treatment of acne.

Sana Fela has developed a new acne treatment cream that is based on tea tree oil.
Please visit the Acne Treatment Page or the Web Store

References

(1) Raman A et al (1995) Antimicrobial effects of tea-tree oil and its major components on Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermis and Propionibacterium acnes. Lett Appl Microbiol 21: 242-245
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7576514)

(2) Enshaieh S et al. (2008) The efficacy of 5% topical tea tree oil in mild to moderate acne vulgaris: A randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol 73: 22-25
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17314442)

(c) Sana Fela 2009