Improving Tea Tree Oil Production: technology, plant selection and propagation

Abstract

Australian Tea Tree 'Melaleuca alternifolia' is a relatively new crop and commercial plantations are still being established from wild seed collected from natural Tea Tree stands. The difficulty with using wild seed is the variation in oil yield and quality within the population. Plant improvement to overcome this problem has been limited by technology. This thesis addresses these limitations. This study has provided a significant advance in the technology of Tea Tree oil production and research. To successfully carry out the selection, new distillation methods were developed. Using semi micro stills leaf samples as small as 5g can be accurately distilled, and the resulting oil collected for composition analysis.