The "Treasure" Squeezed Out of a leaf: The Secret of Tea Tree Oil is Finally Revealed
Tea tree essential oilin a Camphorwood box
There is a small glass bottle hidden in Grandma Lin's camphorwood box. When the cork is pulled out, the whole room is filled with the bitter smellof grass and wood. It was the tea tree essential oil she brought as a dowry. The label on the bottle has long turned yellow, but it has been rubbed to a shine.
In the rainy season of 1958, mold appeared in the silkworm room in the village. The newly formed cocoons were covered with a layer of gray-green, and the silkworm farmers were so anxious that they stamped their feet. Grandma Lin looked at the increasingly sluggish silkworms in her own silkworm plaque, and suddenly remembered what her mother said: "Tea tree essential oil can 'absorb moisture and avoid mold'."
She ran to the silkworm room with the camphorwood box, dipped a clean brush in the essential oil, and gently put a few drops in each corner of the silkworm plaque. The bitter fragrance mixed with the damp heat of the silkworm room spread out. The next morning, the cocoons that were originally going to mold actually survived, and even the musty smell in the air was much lighter.
This method quickly spread throughout the village, and every household came to ask for some essential oil for emergency. Grandma Lin's small bottle was empty, but in exchange she got a basket full of new silk cocoons. Later she learned that her mother specifically asked her to bring this bottle of essential oil because her grandmother used it to preserve silk for merchants from Southeast Asia - those delicate silks were in the humid and hot cabins, and these few drops of essential oil resisted the mildew.
Today, Grandma Lin's granddaughter works as a perfumer in the city and has reproduced the tea tree essential oil formula of that year. She said: "Grandma's small bottle is not filled with oil, but the wisdom of the older generation hidden in the plants and trees. It is clear and refreshing."