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Lavender and Tea Tree Essential Oils Review

How Products Were Evaluated

Written by Mark Anderson, Ph.D. — Medically reviewed and edited by Tod Cooperman, M.D.

How Products were Selected:

Products tested represent those commonly sold and/or available nationally in the U.S. ConsumerLab.com purchased products on the open market through retail stores, on-line retailers and direct sales. Products were not accepted directly from manufacturers.

Testing Methods:

Lavender oil: Quantitative analysis of camphor, linalool and linalyl acetate by High Resolution Gas Chromatography — Mass Spectroscopy (HRGC-MS) and confirmation of chemical profile by HRGC-MS.GC-MS).
Tea Tree oil: Quantification of 1,8-cineole and terpinen-4-ol by HRGC-MS and confirmation of chemical profile by HRGC-MS.
Analyses for lead, cadmium, and arsenic were performed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS). Determination of mercury using cold vapor technique.
Total plate count (TPC) for bacterial growth including Burkholderia pseudomallei and total plate counts for yeast and for mold.

Testing was performed by one or more independent laboratories. Any product that did not initially pass (below) a test was sent to another independent laboratory to repeat testing for the criterion on which it did not pass.

ConsumerLab.com may modify or use other appropriate test methods if necessary to test special product formulations.

The identities of the products were not disclosed to the laboratories performing the testing.

Passing Score:*

To be "Approved" by Consumerlab.com, a product must meet the following requirements:
Lavender Oil:

Linalool: Not less than 20% (v/v), linalyl acetate: Not less than 25% (v/v) (European Pharmacopoeia for L. angustifolia 2008). The sum of the two not less than 45% (v/v).
Camphor: Not more than1.2% (v/v) (European Pharmacopoeia for L. angustifolia oil 2008).
Chemical profile must conform to the profile of Lavandula angustifolia oil (ESCOP 2009).

Tea Tree Oil:

Terpinen-4-ol: Not less than 35.0% (International Organization for Standardization ISO 4730:2017).
1,8-cineole: Not more than 10.0% (International Organization for Standardization ISO 4730:2017).
Chemical profile must conform to the profile of Melaleuca alternifolia oil (Certified reference standard).

All Products:

Microbes: Total plate counts for a product must not exceed 10 cfu/mL for each of the following: bacteria, yeast, and mold.
Heavy Metals: Products must not exceed the following limits:
No more than 0.1 ppm each of lead, cadmium and mercury. Contain no more than 0.1 ppm of inorganic arsenic if 10 ppm or more of total arsenic found (based on GOED 2012 limits for heavy metals in marine oils and 1999 Codex standards for fats and oils from vegetable sources).

* Passing scores allow for specific margins of technical error associated with each analysis. ConsumerLab.com reserves the right to disqualify a product at any time from passing if it considers such product to display unacceptable variation in quality, present a safety risk or to provide misleading or inaccurate information in its labeling.

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