INDUSTRY

Purity monitoring program from the global authority
on tea tree oil.
Purity monitoring program from the global
Since 2013, ATTIA has collaborated with AgriFutures Australia and Southern Cross University’s Analytical
Research Laboratory to monitor the purity of retail tea tree oil products from around the world.
In 2019, our work was enhanced with an official project in partnership with these organisations, and the
University of Tasmania.
Products tested.
Adulterated products.
In many cases, manufacturers are unaware that they are using adulterated oil.
Our program informs them of the compliance issues and potential safety risks for consumers.
Pure tea tree oil can be identified by chiral purity testing, including the enantiomeric
distribution of Melaleuca alternifolia. ⁺˜
Chiral purity testing is not currently required to pass any international standards (e.g.mISO, EP,
BP, USP, AS), allowing companies to pass off adulterated tea tree oil as pure.
⁺ Yong Foo Wong, Noel W. Davies, Sung-Tong Chin, Tony Larkman, Philip J. Marriott, Enantiomeric distribution of selected terpenes for authenticity assessment of Australian Melaleuca alternifolia oil, Industrial Crops and Products, Volume 67, 2015, Pages 475-483, ISSN 0926-6690,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2015.01.066. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926669015000680)
˜ Davies NW, Larkman T, Marriott PJ, Khan IA. Determination of Enantiomeric Distribution of Terpenes for Quality Assessment of Australian Tea Tree Oil. J Agric
Food Chem. 2016 Jun 15;64(23):4817-9. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.6b01803. Epub 2016 Jun 6. PMID: 27181097. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27181097/
If you have purchased a product containing tea tree oil and have concerns about the products purity, or have experienced an issue with the product, ATTIA wants to know about it.
Help ATTIA stamp out the proliferation of adulterated tea tree oil to keep consumers safe.
Contact ATTIA via the form below.


Italo Pellizzer – North Queensland Essential Oil Co-op – Certified Member