# [Wet Thumb Forum]-Melaleuca Alternifolia (Tea Tree Oil)



## Avalon (Mar 7, 2005)

I inheirited a young pair of Blue Diamond discus. Unfortunately, their previous owner did not take good care of them. To help treat a bacterial lesion on one, slimy skin on the other, and slight fin rot on both, I picked up some Melafix. This is the first time I've used it.

I chose Melafix because it is all natural. I've heard it's pretty decent stuff. After examining the bottle and ingredients, I've made a couple of observations.

Melafix contains:
1.0% Melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil)
99.0% Inert ingredients

I realized I had a bottle of pure Tea Tree Oil my mother gave me. She swears by it to heal wounds and whatnot for herself. I've only used it once myself. Now that I think about it, the cut I used it on healed unusually fast. I never use it because of the extremely strong odor (think: an entire bottle of cologne, but only 3 drops of TTO).

After examining the ingredients on the Herbal Harvest Tea Tree Oil, this is what I've found.

Herbal Harvest Tea Tree Oil:
100% pure (smells just like Melafix, only much, much stronger)
Pharmaceutical grade

"Tea Tree is a pure oil, culled from the leaves of a tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), native to Australia. Traditionally, it has been used as a topical agent for the skin.

The Australian standards require that the oil of Melaleuca alternifolia must be composed of less than 15% cineole and over 30% terpinen-4-ol. Our superior grade of Tea Tree Oil is meticulously analyzed to ensure that it exceeds these levels of oil quality standards decreed by the Australian government. Our Tea Tree Oil is composed of less than 5% cineole and over 35% terpinen-4-ol which qualifies for "Pharmaceutical Grade", as established by the Australian Tea Tree Oil Industry Association."

So, wouldn't Melafix be a watered down (literally) version of pure tea tree oil? What are the cances of a person using drops of "pharmaceutical grade" tea tree oil to treat fish?

Any thoughts on this?


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## Avalon (Mar 7, 2005)

I inheirited a young pair of Blue Diamond discus. Unfortunately, their previous owner did not take good care of them. To help treat a bacterial lesion on one, slimy skin on the other, and slight fin rot on both, I picked up some Melafix. This is the first time I've used it.

I chose Melafix because it is all natural. I've heard it's pretty decent stuff. After examining the bottle and ingredients, I've made a couple of observations.

Melafix contains:
1.0% Melaleuca (Tea Tree Oil)
99.0% Inert ingredients

I realized I had a bottle of pure Tea Tree Oil my mother gave me. She swears by it to heal wounds and whatnot for herself. I've only used it once myself. Now that I think about it, the cut I used it on healed unusually fast. I never use it because of the extremely strong odor (think: an entire bottle of cologne, but only 3 drops of TTO).

After examining the ingredients on the Herbal Harvest Tea Tree Oil, this is what I've found.

Herbal Harvest Tea Tree Oil:
100% pure (smells just like Melafix, only much, much stronger)
Pharmaceutical grade

"Tea Tree is a pure oil, culled from the leaves of a tree (Melaleuca alternifolia), native to Australia. Traditionally, it has been used as a topical agent for the skin.

The Australian standards require that the oil of Melaleuca alternifolia must be composed of less than 15% cineole and over 30% terpinen-4-ol. Our superior grade of Tea Tree Oil is meticulously analyzed to ensure that it exceeds these levels of oil quality standards decreed by the Australian government. Our Tea Tree Oil is composed of less than 5% cineole and over 35% terpinen-4-ol which qualifies for "Pharmaceutical Grade", as established by the Australian Tea Tree Oil Industry Association."

So, wouldn't Melafix be a watered down (literally) version of pure tea tree oil? What are the cances of a person using drops of "pharmaceutical grade" tea tree oil to treat fish?

Any thoughts on this?


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## Rex Grigg (Jan 22, 2004)

Interesting. I may have to find some of this pure oil. I use the pond strength Melafix which is 5%. I love the stuff. It does work for the minor scrapes and scratches that fish get. I would go ahead and use it.

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## wetmanNY (Feb 1, 2003)

No one's ever thought Melafix was anything but that, a watered-down emulsion of Tea Tree oil. It does have an emulsifier to make the oil more water soluble, which made it foam up so much there's a patented anti-foaming agent added.

But there's nothing active in Melafix but _Melaleuca alternifolia_ essential oil.

A teaspoonful in the water jug you use for the last rinse after a shampoo is nice, too.


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## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

I have been researching this also recently. Melafix is sold in two different concentrations - pond and aquarium. Same stuff just different concentration. My 16 oz bottle says to use 1 tsp per 10 gallons US of water.

Ingredients are 1% melaleuca and 99% inert ingredients.
Apparently the pond version is 5% melaleuca and is used at 1 tsp per 50 gallons.

The label for the pond version describes MelaFix as using "the antibacterial power of Melaleuca (Tea Tree) extract for the treatment of bacterial infections."

You can read about the patent at:

http://164.195.100.11/netahtml/srchnum.htm

Per another post, the detailed ingredients are:
"Melafix is composed of:

1% cajeput oil
1% emulsifier (Crovol PK-70 nonionic emulsifier)
0.2% defoamer (FG-10 by Dow Corning)
97.8% deionized water"

An aqueous solution without emulsifier and defoamer can be used, but the mixture must be shaken vigorously for 1-5 minutes first.

Note cajeput oil is another name for oil from the tree Melaleuca. From my reading, the patent is based on oil from a vietnamese version of the tree, Melaleuca
cajuputi, M. leucadendron and other species of Melaleuca.

Apparently some of the herbal/health food oil, called "Tea tree oil" is from an australian version of the Melaleuca tree, Melaleuca alternifolia . Haven't heard of any specific differentiation. However, it appears that the term cajeput is used only for the vietnamese oils from M. cajuputi and M. leucadendron. So if you want to be mixing EXACTLY the same stuff, it seems to me you want to find "cajeput" oil, not merely "Tea tree" oil.

Also wondering about the "CAS# 8008-98-8" I found it is a scientific reference which translates to 
"Oil of cajeput [8008-98-8] Synonyms: Melaleuca cajuputi powell oil; Melaleuca leucadendron l. oil; Cajuput oil; Oil of cajeput; Cajeput oil"

Sources: I read that it may be available locally in health food stores. A web store for it is:
http://www.selectoils.com/essentialoils/cajeput.htm
1 oz. $4.25 4 oz $9.75

Bob


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## wetmanNY (Feb 1, 2003)

Wow. Good research techniques! Better than mine, that's for sure.

I hope I may link to this post from www.skepticalaquarist.com


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## BobAlston (Jan 23, 2004)

Feel free to link to it or copy it to your site.

By the way, your Skeptical site is awsome!

Bob


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