Botany
Melaleuca is a tree growing to 10 meters or more, with a dense narrow crown, a stout, often twisted trunk. with a spongy. The bark is spongy and corky and peels off in thin layers. Branches are pendulous. Leaves are thin, leathery, alternate, lanceolate, up to 7 cm long, 1.5 cm wide, 5-nerved, short-petioled, and pointed at both ends. Flowers are white, in dense spikes, up to 7 cm long, emits an unpleasant, musty odor. Fruit is small and greyish-brown with a narrow groove around the top surrounding a small, crater-like cup marked with 5 radial grooves.
 Distribution
Recently introduced.
Cultivated and planted along streets in Baguio and Manila.
Rare elsewhere in the Philippines.
Constituents
- Melaleuca oil is distilled from fresh leaves and twigs.
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The leaves yield cajeput oil which contains 45 to 56 % cineol, esters of butteric, valerianic and acetic acids, dl-pinene, valeral, butril, benzaldehydes, l-linalool, etc.
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The essential oil concentration in leaves is relatively high, about 1-3% of fresh mass. Among the 150 compounds present in M. quinquenervia foliage, 5-10 constitute more than 95% of the solvent-extractable terpenoids. Of these, 1,8-cineole, a-pinene, limonene, trans-nerolidol, b-caryophyllne and viridiflorol constitute the major terpenoids in the leaves.
- In one study, Niaouli essential oils were classified into three chemotypes: Chemotype 2, rich in 1,8-cineole (up to 80%); C1, rich in terpinene derivatives; , and C3 rich in a-pinene and viridiflorol.
Properties
Oil considered carminative, antispasmodic, sudorific, stimulant, rubefacient.
Parts used
Oil, bark.
Uses
Edibility
In New Caledonia, tea is made from the leaves.
Folkloric
In eastern Malaysia, the bark, softened by mastication, is applied to suppurating wounds to draw out the pus.
In Sarawak, the bark is used with Hydrocotyle leaves on festering wounds, also to draw out pus.
Oil used externally as a parasiticide and as anthelmintic.
In Malaysia, oil is used externally for headaches, toothaches, earaches, rheumatism, cramps and fresh wounds.
In European medicine, oil is used as a sudorific and vermifuge.
Oil used for rheumatism and neuralgia; and in dental caries, as anodyne; as eardrops for earaches; and locally, for ptyriasis, psoriasis and eczema.
Oil also used as counterirritant, rubbed over the chest in bronchitis, pneumonia, pleurodynia, pleuritis.
Oil may be mixed with mustard oil as an anodyne liniment.
Oil taken internally as a powerful stimulant, carminative and antispasmodic; given in choleric diarrhea.
Others
• Wood: Not a traditional timber product because of a high bark-to-wood ratio. However, the wood may be used as pulp and cabinetry, and make a fine firewood. The papery bark is used by the Malays for caulking their boats.
• Repellent: Oil makes an excellent mosquite repellant.
• Fuel: Entire tree can be used as biomass fuel, but not ideal because of its powdery, low-density bark.
Studies
• Phytochemical Screening: Study of the leaf and stem of MQ yielded hydrocarbons, fatty acids, cholesterol, stigmasterol, b-sitosterol, oleanic acid, kaempferol, quercetin, quercetrin and saponin glycosides.
• Polyphenols and Ellagitannins / Grandinin / Antioxidant / Hypoglycemic: Study isolated four polyphenolic acid derivatives and three ellagitannins from the leaves of MQ for the first time. One of the 7, grandinin, showed radical scavenging properties, found to be nontoxic, and to have a significant dose-dependent hypoglycemic effect in STZ-induced diabetic mice. Grandinin also reduced the elevated BUN and serum lipid peroxides.
• Allergenicity: Study was done to determine if Melaleuco quinquenervia tree is a source of allergen and respiratory irritant. Results indicate the Melaleuca tree is not a significant source of aeroallergen and the Melaleuca odor is not a respiratory irritant.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Extracts and oil in the cybermarkets.
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