Successfully treating skin infections, whether they are bacterial, fungal, or viral, doesn't necessarily mean you have to take strong pharmaceutical medication with potentially dangerous side effects. The plant kingdom has many forms of effective, safe, natural antibiotics, anti-virals and fungicides. One of the best is a topical oil with all three of these properties. It comes from an ancient Australian tree called the tea tree.

Tea tree oil was first used by Bundjalung Aborigines living in the northeast corner of what is now New South Wales, Australia. They would pick the oil-covered leaves of the tea tree plant and rub the leaves on their skin to help alleviate cuts, bites, burns and other skin ailments. They created a dressing for wounds by grinding the leaves into a fine paste. Crushed leaves were used as an insect repellant.

When tea trees grow at the edge of a lake or pool of water, their oil drips into the water turning it into a medicinal bath. The Aborigines would sit in these bronze pools to heal sore or infected areas of their skin.

In 1770, Captain James Cook with the British Royal Navy along with botanist Joseph Banks sailed the coast of Australia and encountered a grove of thick trees with sticky aromatic leaves. The native Aboriginal people showed him how to boil the leaves and create a spiced tea. Captain Cook then named this tree the "tea tree."

There are several different kinds of tea trees but the one with the most potent medicinal oil is called Melaleuca alternifolia. It is native only to the northeast area of New South Wales, Australia. Growing up to 20 feet high, this narrow-leaved paper bark tree thrives in flood prone wetlands.

The colorless or pale yellow oil of the tree has a pungent aroma resembling eucalyptus. It is composed of over 100 different compounds, 79 of which have been identified. There are several compounds like viridflorene, that have never been found in nature before, so identifying some of these compounds has required coming up with new names.

Fifty to 60 percent of the oil is composed of terpenes (pinenes, terpinene, and cymene). Cineole -- which is responsible for the camphoraceous odor -- comprises about 6 to 8 percent of the oil. Other substances include alcohol terpineol, which has a nutmeg-like odor and sesquiterpenes.

To check the quality of the oil in each batch, the quantity of only two compounds, cineole and terpinen-4-ol, are tested. Cineole should not be greater than 15 percent because it can be caustic to the skin. The higher the percentage of terpinen-4-ol, the better. Generally, good oils contain at least 30 percent.

The anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties of the oil come of a combination of many of the different compounds working together.

Harvesting the leaves in the wild is no easy task. The trees grow in swamp lands infested with insects and snakes. There is no way to get machinery in the area, so the leaves are cut by hand. Large machetes are used to cut suckers off of the stumps and then each branch is stripped with a cane knife. Stripping the leaves does not damage the tree. In fact, the growth of the trees seems to be stimulated by regular cropping. Damage to the trees is prevented and because no machinery is used, the surrounding ecosystem is not harmed either.

After the leaves have been harvested they are place on racks in a steam distiller. The oil comes out of the leaves and then floats on top of water in a collection tank. The oil is then filtered and poured into a container.

With increasing world demand, tea trees are now also grown on plantations. When purchasing tea tree oil be sure to buy oil from plants that have been grown organically. Finding organic oil fortunately isn't that difficult. The largest plantation- responsible for 1/2 of the world's supply each year- is an organic farm.

The first scientific paper to be published on tea tree oil was back in 1923. Dr. A. R. Penfold, a chemist in Sydney, tested tea tree essential oil for it's antiseptic properties. He found it was 13 times stronger in killing bacteria than carbalic acid- the universal standard antiseptic in the early 1900's. In the 1930's tea tree oil was used as an antiseptic for dressing wounds, for oral hygiene and as a disinfectant in hand soap. It was found to be 60 times more effective in killing typhoid bacillus than any other disinfectant used in soap at that time.

Just prior to World War II, the Medical Journal of Australia published a study finding that tea tree oil was effective in treating pus filled infections of the skin and infected nail beds, and helped to speed the recovery from sore throats when it was gargled. Other studies during this time found it was beneficial for a variety of throat and mouth conditions, dental problems like pyorrhea and gingivitis, gynecological infections, and skin fungal infections like Candida, tinea, and perionychia( infections around the nail bed). Because of the discovery of tea tree oils potent ability to fight skin infections, it was used routinely in first aid kits during World War II. Tea tree oil was also blended with machine cutting oil during the war, to reduce the incidence of skin infections from injuries resulting from using the machines.

In the last 5 to 10 years there has been a lot of studies documenting the efficacy of tea tree oil in treating a variety of conditions including acne, burns, thrush (yeast), Candida, bacterial and fungal infections. Here are just a few of examples. A study published in 2001 in the Journal of Chemotherapy found tea tree oil was a good topical therapy for the treatment of fungal infections of skin and mucosa (lining of the mouth). A German study published in 2000 found tea tree oil showed anti-microbial activity against a wide range of bacteria, yeast and fungus. A randomized, placebo-controlled study conducted at the University of California San Francisco published in 1999 found topical tea tree oil effectively treats fungal infections of the toenail known as onychomycosis. Normally, this type of infection can destroy the entire nail and it has no satisfactory pharmaceutical cure. Tea tree oil cured the fungal infection in 80 percent of the patients. A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 1990 found tea tree oil was as effective in treating acne as benzoyl peroxide, with fewer side effects.

The only side effects reported from tea tree oil are an occasional mild rash or allergic contact dermatitis. In studies where patients developed a mild reaction, they were able to continue using it until their treatment was complete. Rarely, someone may experience a more severe reaction, in which case he or she should stop using it.

Tea tree oil can also be used for animals. Bites, cuts, stings, rashes, dermatitis, lice, mange, ringworm, fleas and ticks are just a few of the veterinary uses.

Tea tree oil can be purchased as a pure essential oil. It may be applied either full strength or diluted in water or another type of oil like olive oil. Most of the tea tree oil produced, however, is added to skin and beauty care products -- deodorants, shampoos, mouthwashes, etc. Industrial-grade oils are used as disinfectants in floor detergents and can be added to air conditioning and ventilation systems to kill mold and fungus.

For thousands of years humans being used plants to help keep themselves healthy and to heal from wounds and disease. Only in the last century did pharmaceutical drugs take over in industrialized countries as the primary approach to treat disease. In some cases, drugs are certainly appropriate, but not in all cases. As we rediscover nature's medicine chest through modern research, a whole new world of therapies is opening up to us -- natural therapies -- that are often as effective as pharmaceutical drugs, but without the side effects. Many of the medicinal plants contain properties to heal that no synthetic drug has been able to mimic. So if you have a mild health condition, do a little research. There just might be a natural remedy that may save you a trip to the doctor, the cost of a prescription, and the possibility of a significant side effect.