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Allergy to tea tree oil: Retrospective review of 41 cases with positive patch tests over 4.5 years
Author(s) -
Rutherford Tim,
Nixon Rosemary,
Tam Mei,
Tate Bruce
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
australasian journal of dermatology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.67
H-Index - 53
eISSN - 1440-0960
pISSN - 0004-8380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-0960.2007.00341.x
Subject(s) - tea tree oil , medicine , melaleuca alternifolia , patch test , patch testing , tree (set theory) , contact dermatitis , allergic contact dermatitis , dermatology , traditional medicine , toxicology , allergy , essential oil , food science , mathematics , immunology , biology , mathematical analysis
SUMMARY Tea tree oil use is increasing, with considerable interest in it being a ‘natural’ antimicrobial. It is found in many commercially available skin and hair care products in Australia. We retrospectively reviewed our patch test data at the Skin and Cancer Foundation Victoria over a 4.5‐year period and identified 41 cases of positive reactions to oxidized tea tree oil of 2320 people patch‐tested, giving a prevalence of 1.8%. The tea tree oil reaction was deemed relevant to the presenting dermatitis in 17 of 41 (41%) patients. Of those with positive reactions, 27 of 41 (66%) recalled prior use of tea tree oil and eight of 41 (20%) specified prior application of neat (100%) tea tree oil. Tea tree oil allergic contact dermatitis is under‐reported in the literature but is sufficiently common in Australia to warrant inclusion of tea tree oil, at a concentration of 10% in petrolatum, in standard patch‐test series. Given tea tree oil from freshly opened tea tree oil products elicits no or weak reactions, oxidized tea tree oil should be used for patch testing.