You've heard about the number of remarkable properties of tea tree oil: antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal. It's too good to be true. Maybe you've taken it for a condition, or as a topical medication. Is this the same stuff as the tea leaves left over from your steeping? Could you make your own tea tree oil?

Not unless you live in Australia.

Native to — and found only in — Australia, the tea tree that makes this potent medicine is the Melaleuca Alternifolia, a shrub with pine-like needles. Like its homonym, the Australian Tea Tree has a number of health benefits and uses in modern medicine. Aborigines used a number of tea trees to make inhalant medicine for coughs, colds, or topical poultices for various wounds and infections. Today, tea tree oil is used in the development of many modern medicines as well as available in supplement and topical form in specialty herbal shops and organic markets.