Ive ingested tea tre oil before. I believe its safe as long as its deluted and as long as you are using a high grade oil. I wouldn't use a cheap unknown brand or anything sold at Dollar Tree or Walmart, places like that. I've poured Melaleuca oil down my throat before and although it burned, it never gave me any other side effects that they list. However, use at your own discretion. I use a lot of alternative healing remedies and I am healthy and only take one prescription for asthma. I have deluted it tea as well. The Aborigines have been using it for centuries. "It’s been well documented that the Bundjalung Aborigines in eastern Australia have used tea trees to treat ailments including coughs, colds, and sore throats by inhaling the smell from the crushed leaves, and drinking an infusion of Melaleuca tea." https://www.youngliving.com/en_EU/discover/history-of-essential-oils/history-of-tea-tree#:~:text=Australian%20Aboriginal%20Uses%20for%20Tea%20Trees,-Aboriginal%20Australians%2C%20indigenous&text=They%20would%20use%20tea%20trees,cover%20it%20with%20warm%20mudpack.

Hello Mary. I have used tea tree oil for several years, and, yes, in my experience it can work REALLY fast (from a few minutes to overnight for me). Especially if I catch the pimple early, it usually goes right down w/no trace at all. I use it on trouble spots (one drop straight from the bottle), not all over my face. I like mixing it with lavender essential oil which masks the herbal smell & also speeds healing of the skin. I suspect curlymom's daughter mixes it with moisturizer because it's a convenient way to get a small preventative dose each time you moisturize your face - which is good if you are having chronic breakouts (or know you've been hitting the chocolate or chips a little too much: usually the source of my outbreaks ;-P). Three to ten drops to each ounce of moisturizer is plenty. Theoretically, too much can be irritating. Also remember that lavender & tea tree are the only essential oils recommended for use "neat" (i.e., undiluted on the skin). Straight tea tree oil is powerful enough to stop cold sores dead in their tracks too (esp. good mixed w/lavender oil) if caught early. Keep it away from the tender eye area. The only thing that I've found that works nearly as well (or sometimes better) is propolis tincture from my local beekeeper. Green blessings, ~bushpoet

Some big ego's in here, kind of sad to see. I would like to inform all interested that the Australian Aboriginals have used Melaleuca (Tea Tree) for thousands of years. When ever they had a cold/sore throat or just wanted a boost (tonic) they just boiled up the leaves in water and drank the tea. I've tried it and enjoy the taste, I also noticed quite a bit of oil floating on the surface of my tea. No ill effects at all. The paper like bark is also excellent for cooking fish in. I have also used Tea tree oil as a preservative when boiling up extracts of herbs/mushrooms. They never go off and don't cause me any problems internally. This post was edited by MycoMac on Wed, Jun 12, 13 at 7:05

I used it to sucessfully treat powdery mildew on a rose. It was useless for treating blackspot. I have thought about substituting tea tree oil for horticultural oil in Cornell Formula. That might be a good experiment to try this year.