Using tea tree oil for hygienic massage practice

Abstract

Objective: The essential oil of tea tree (TTO) possesses powerful antibacterial activity, and many aromatherapists in Japan use it for preventing infection during foot massage. Thus, this study evaluated whether massage was more hygienic using vegetable base oil with added TTO as compared to vegetable base oil alone.

Design: Massage sessions were conducted using four different essential oil combinations in jojoba oil as lubricant; 3% TTO, 6% TTO, 3% lavender oil (LO) and 6% LO. Jojoba oil without any added essential oil was used as the control. Bacterial samples were taken from both the palms of the therapist and the client’s skin and surviving bacteria were counted. Also, to clarify the growth inhibition effect on bacteria, 4.80 × 10³ colony forming units (CFU) of Staphylococcus aureus were added to the five test oils used as lubricants, undiluted TTO and undiluted LO, and the reduction of bacterial survival count measured.

Results: The bacterial count on the palms of the therapist increased whilst that on the client’s skin decreased after massages of 10 min and 20 min. The bacterial count was dependent on the concentration of essential oils, however this tendency was not specific to TTO. Using undiluted TTO and LO in the bacterial growth experiments, no multiplication of the organisms was observed, but diluted TTO and LO were not as effective.

Conclusion: Undiluted TTO possessed antibacterial activity against S. aureus in vitro, but it could not be demonstrated that it was effective when added to a lubricant base oil for the purpose of hygienic massage practice.