Tea Tree Essential Oil이 피부상태에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구 -청소년피부를 중심으로- = The Effect of Tea Tree Essential Oil on Skin Conditions -Based on Tests on Teenagers-

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

With the standard of living being elevated, people have an increasing interest in health and beauty. In particular, natural and eco-friendly beauty products, rather than products made of artificial chemicals, are gaining popularity as ways to enhance people`s skin conditions. In this regard, this paper studies the effect of Tea Tree essential oil, one of the natural products in the limelight, and also considers the oil`s potential to be used as natural antibiotics. The subject of this study is a group of 58 male and female middle school students in Daejeon and the group is divided into two groups of 29. The sample group is given cosmetics containing Tee Tree essential oil and the control group is given cosmetics without it. All of them are required to apply the cosmetics twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, for 4 weeks. The skin conditions of the two groups are measured by cornemeter, sebumeter and skin pH meter three times from the beginning of the test at two-week intervals over the four weeks` test period for comparison. The followings are the results that this study presents. The first hypothesis that “Tea Tree essential oil will have a positive effect on the level of moisture within the skin.” was denied. Skin condition is highly influenced by seasonal change. And as the study was conducted during the seasonal transition from late summer to autumn, reduction in skin`s moisture was detected in all subjects regardless of which group they belong to. The dry weather also caused dry skin making it difficult for us to precisely grasp how effective Tea Tree essential oil was on the subjects` skin. The second hypothesis that “Tea Tree essential oil will have a positive effect on the level of oil within the skin.” was supported. Tea Tree essential oil was found to balance the level of oil within skin by helping reduce oil in an excessively oily skin and by providing and maintaining a certain degree of oil in an oil-deprived dry skin. In short, Tea Tree essential oil has proved to have a certain function as a sebum controller. The third hypothesis that “Tea Tree essential oil will have a positive effect on the changes in skin pH.” was denied. Since not only the sample group but also the control group showed some changes in their skin pH levels, there was no evidence that Tea Tree essential oil had a direct impact on the pH level changes. Since it proves to improve the oil balance within people`s skin, Tea Tree essential oil is considered to strengthen skin`s resistance to external factors, sterilizing power and elasticity while preventing dry skin. For adults, Tea Tree essential oil is thought to help keep youthful skin by forming a protective film over it. And given the positive effects it has on the conditions of skin surface, there seems to be high possibility for Tea Tree essential oil to be used for the development of natural antibiotics and various medical cosmetics.