LEMON TEA TREE
(Leptospermum petersonii)
Lemon Tea Tree is a fine, strong citrus, scented essential oil with many therapeutic qualities.
By Jeanne Rose
COMMON NAME/LATIN BINOMIAL ~ Lemon Tea Tree (Leptospermum petersonii) Bailey
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OTHER COMMON NAME/NAMING INFORMATION ~ From the Greek woes and referring to the slender (leptos) seeds (sperma) and named after W. J. Peterson, who was the original collector in 1905 and described in the Queensland Agricultural Journal from a specimen collected by W.J. Peterson on Wilsons Peak in January 1905.– Wikipedia
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FAMILY ~ Myrtaceae. Myrtaceae, or the Myrtle family, is a family of dicotyledonous plants placed within the order Myrtales of the Family Myrtaceae. Myrtle, Allspice, Bay Rum tree, Clove, Eucalyptus, and Guava are some notable members of this group. All species are woody, with flower parts in multiples of four or five and with essential oils and flower parts in multiples of four or five.
Leptospermum petersonii F.M. Bailey and Eucalyptus gunnii Hook.f. belong to the Myrtaceae family. This plant family comprises of at least 3000 species widely distributed in several tropical and warm-temperate areas, such as Australia and Central and South America (Mabberley, 1997)). Many EOs produced by the Myrtaceae species have been reported for their insecticidal, nematocidal, anti-inflammatory, and antifungal activities and are used as antimicrobial agents in cosmetic products1.
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COUNTRIES OF ORIGINS ~ Endemic to Australia, a few species in New Zealand and SE Asia
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ENDANGERED OR NOT ~ This is a very hardy tree that is in leaf all year. This species is hermaphrodite, having both female and male organs, and it is pollinated by insects. It is not endangered at this time, but it is regarded as a weed in some places.
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GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF PLANT HABITAT AND GROWTH ~ An evergreen shrub, hardy, up to 3-7 m. native to southern Queensland and north NSW. Bright green leaves, narrow with a strong lemon order. Used as a street tree in various areas.
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PORTION OF PLANT USED FOR EXTRACTION, EXTRACTION METHODS; DISTILLATION, HOW DISTILLED, AND YIELDS ~ Steam Distillation — Leaves and Small Stems
YIELDS ~ 0.5%, if distilled when flowering, yield is lower.
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ORGANOLEPTIC CHARACTERISTICS OF LEMON TEA TREE
LEMON TEA TREE OIL DESCRIPTION
This is a pale to medium yellow oil, clear, non-viscous, and watery, with a medium-intensity odor (5 on a scale of 1-10). The scent is a strong citrus-green lemon odor, with an herbaceous subsidiary note and a light floral back note. It is slightly numbing to the tongue.
- Color – medium-yellow
- Clarity – clear
- Viscosity – non-viscous
- Intensity of odor – 5
ODOR DESCRIPTION/ AROMA ASSESSMENT ~ A somewhat strong, and pleasant odor of citrus with fruity and herbaceous notes as well.
Chemical profile ~ 45-65% citral (neral + geranial) 21.6% ; citronellal 2-3% ; isopulegol, citronellol, geraniol 1.7% ; linaloöl ; traces of many other chemicals
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Sponsored and supported by Prima Fleur Botanicals.
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GENERAL PROPERTIES of LEMON TEA TREE
PROPERTIES AND USES and ESSENTIAL OIL PROPERTIES Anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-histamine, sedative, insect repellent., tea flavorant.
APPLICATION/ SKINCARE ~ USES Use directly on cold sores or herpes, apply around ears to relieve vertigo, use in creams or lotions as insect repellent or diffuse to cleanse the air and repel insects. Good addition to cosmetics and toiletries.
Due to its antiseptic properties, this oil is helpful for general skin cleansing. It is also beneficial for the aromatherapy treatment of oily, acne-infected skin areas.
‡Can be a Skin irritant.
Inhaled for deep respiratory infections or infections of the sinus and bronchi, apply to aching muscles and joints.
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DIFFUSE/DIFFUSION ~ EMOTIONAL/ENERGETIC USE ~ The mystery of aromatherapy —Get to know the elusive essence that is able to create such a variety of emotional and physical changes.
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BLENDING & PERFUMERY ~ Due to the presence of citral, wherever you have used an oil such as Litsea cubeba ( May Chang), you can substitute Lemon Tea Tree. It will give the blend a slight turn of scent but is most enjoyable to smell. This oil is best used in smaller quantities as a bridge note or connecting note.
CITRAL – Geranial + neral are stereoisomers and together = citral
(A stereo or optical isomer is an identical mirror-image form of a component, one occurring in ‘d’ or dextro=right or clockwise form and the other in ‘l’ or laevo=left in counter-clockwise form. Think of looking at your hand and then looking at it in the mirror.)
Citral, an aldehyde that is also part of the chemistry of citrus oils, always occurs as a mixture of its stereoisomers. Part of the odor of the Chypre scent is less than 1%. When added to a perfume formula, it breaks down over time into hemiacetals. This means that it can overpower a formula. If your perfume has aldehydes, remember to keep them at 1-2% of the total synergy and no more.
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Bridge notes that contain hydro-citronellal or citral components such as Litsea cubeba, Lemon Tea Tree, or Backhousia, along with Styrax resin, bring together volatile top notes of citrus such as Bergamot or Orange with those deep and earthy bottom notes such as Vetivert and Labdanum. These citral notes are very tenacious in a blend or perfume, and I like to describe them as ‘doubling in size’ as the perfume is allowed to rest and age. Of course, this is not truly correct, but you must be careful using Litsea or any like scent as it does seem to ‘grow’ in scent.
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Lemon Tea Tree Blends well with Cedarwood, Chamomiles, citrus odors, Eucalyptus, Ginger, Palmarosa, and more, such as Patchouli, Labdanum, Oakmoss, and Ylang. Battaglia recommends the use of May Chang with the following essential oils: Basil, Bergamot, Geranium, Ginger, Jasmine, Rose, Rosemary, and Rosewood.
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HYDROSOL ~ I managed to obtain many branches from a pruned Lemon Teatree over 20 years ago. It grows well in Golden Gate Park Arboretum. I took this to a distiller, and we distilled about 3 gallons of lovely, fragrant Lemon Tea Tree hydrosol. I used it in skin toners, bathing rituals, wipe-downs after gym, and simply as a spray on my face and body. I really enjoyed this tart, lemon-scented hydrosol. It is an easy plant to grow and can be kept hedge like, perfect for harvesting for hydrosol.
PLEASE NOTE: A true hydrosol should be specifically distilled for the hydrosol, not as a co-product or even a by-product of essential oil distillation. The plant’s cellular water has many components. Most are lost under pressurized short steam runs for essential oil or by using dried material. We recommend that the producers specifically distill for a product by using plant material that is fresh.
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CULINARY—The leaves are strongly lemon-scented and can be used to brew a strongly aromatic tea or as a flavoring to China tea. They have also been studied as a potential food preservative.
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HERBAL USE ~ The leaf of Lemon-scented Teatree is also used as a flavoring ingredient in boutique tea blends with standard black tea, Camellia sinensis.
I have used large amounts of Lemon Tea Tree as a bathing herb to help my skin.
Please Note: Most commercially available therapeutic Leptospermum honey is derived from flowering Leptospermum scoparium (Manuka) plants from New Zealand.
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KEY USE ~ Use of the essential oil and in scenting tea.
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HISTORICAL USES & INTERESTING INFORMATION ~ Leptospermum petersonii, commonly known as Australian Rose (lemon-scented tea tree), is a rare little tree, naturally occurring in lowland or floodplain areas in Northern New South Wales. Previous literature proposed the existence of three chemical varieties of this species based on the composition of its EO (Brophy et al., 2000). At present, there is no knowledge of indigenous uses of L. petersonii. However, other species of the same genus are known to be used in traditional medicine, such as Leptospermum flavescens Sm., used in Malaysia as a way to relieve stomach disorders and menstrual disorders1
Lemon myrtle and lemon-scented tea tree essential oils as potential inhibitors of green mold on citrus fruits by Rahman, Wills, Bowyer, Golding, Kirkman, and Pristijono. Pages 524-533 | Accepted 23 Nov 2021, Published online: 10 Jan 2022.
This study examined the ability of essential oils (EOs) obtained from the Australian native plants, Lemon myrtle (Backhousia citriodora) (LM) and Lemon-scented tea tree (Leptospermum Peterson) (LSTT) to inhibit the in vivo growth of Penicillium digitatum in citrus fruits. The main constituent of LM and LSTT EOs was citral at 85 and 64%, respectively. ……… A 10-sec dip in citral did not cause rind injury but was less effective for mold inhibition. The findings suggest Lemon Myrtle EO as an alternative to synthetic fungicides to inhibit wastage in citrus during storage, particularly for organic produce.
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Jeanne Rose, 2023. May not be reproduced without permission. aromaticplant@yahoo.com
BIBLIOGRAPHY –
Elliott, W. Rodger, and David L. Jones. Encyclopaedia of Australian Plants
Mabberley, D. J. Mabberley’s Plant-Book, 3rd edition, 2014 printing, Cambridge University Press.
Rose, Jeanne. 375 Essential Oils and Hydrosols. Berkeley, California: Frog, Ltd., 1999
Rose, Jeanne. The Aromatherapy Book: Applications & Inhalations. San Francisco, California:
Herbal Studies Course/ Jeanne Rose & Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 1992
Webb, Mark A. Bush Sense,
private communications of case studies.
REFERENCES –
Front Microbiol. 2020; 11: 409. Published online 2020 Apr 15. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00409. 1.PMCID: PMC7174609. PMID: 32351456. Chemical Composition and Biological Activities of the Essential Oils of Leptospermum petersonii and Eucalyptus gunnii(Lis-Balchin 2000, Lee et al 2004, Park et al 2011
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SOME CAUTIONS TO REMEMBER for all Plants and their Parts
PATCH TEST: If applying a new essential oil to your skin, always perform a patch test on the inner arm (after you have diluted the EO in a vegetable carrier oil). —Wash an area of your forearm about the size of a quarter and dry carefully. Apply a diluted drop (1 drop EO + 1 drop carrier) to the area. Then, apply a loose band-aid and wait 24 hours. If there is no reaction, then go ahead and use the oil in your formulas.—The Aromatherapy Book, Applications & Inhalations, p. 64
DISCLAIMER: This work is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for accurate diagnosis and treatment by a qualified health care professional. Dosages are often not given, as that is a matter between you and your healthcare provider. The author is neither a chemist nor a medical doctor. The content herein is the product of research and personal and practical experience. Institute of Aromatic & Herbal Studies – Jeanne Rose©
