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The uplifting feeling of being sold a lemon.
The Refreshed Lemon Myrtle story
This is the story of a small, Australian plant with super powers and the company that harnessed them. Used by our indigenous people for centuries as both flavouring for cooking and remedy to treat infections, this remarkable plant didn’t come to recognition by white Australia until the mid 1850s when it was found to be one of the richest sources of citral in the world.
Besides its anti-microbial qualities making it one of the best aromatherapeutic oils known to science, this humble plant from the subtropical and tropical coastal lowland rainforests of Australia also possesses the most powerful lemon fragrance in the world.
Botanically known as Backhousia citriodora, we know it more commonly as Lemon Myrtle.
More and more Australians are knowing it as Refreshed Lemon Myrtle, the name on the label of the fastest growing health care range on the market.
Lemon Myrtle has roots in early Australia
Lemon Myrtle - Backhousia Citriodora – was named after English Botanist James Backhouse in 1856. Citrio is Latin for citrus and dora is Latin for odour. Curiously it was a German company in 1888 that first distilled Lemon Myrtle and discovered it contained 95% citral, and recognised its super powers.
A year later, Joseph H Maiden, Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, noted Lemon Myrtle in his book ‘Useful Native Plants of Australia.’
In the 1940s, Australians were drinking Lemon Myrtle extract without knowing it. The national drinks company Tarax used it to flavour their lemonade drinks, harvesting the plant from the wild forests of southeast Queensland.
Initial research into growing Lemon Myrtle as a commercial crop started around the late 80s but it was not until the mid-90s when the first commercial plantations were established in northeastern New South Wales.
Enter the Refreshed Lemon Myrtle company with its vision of producing a pure range of personal care and beauty-based natural skin care products. Australians were soon to fall in love with these products and the little plant with the super powers.
More lemony than lemon
Lemon Myrtle is described as more lemony than lemon due to its uplifting, refreshing aroma. Refreshed Lemon Myrtle captures this refreshing appeal and creates pure products that exude the essence of the rainforest. Refreshed Lemon Myrtle can be found in Australia’s bathrooms, kitchens and laundries.
What was to become the Refreshed company sowed its seeds during the 1990s when the Australian Government declared that period the ‘Decade of Landcare’. Refreshed owners knew they could participate in native plant revegetation while also producing an economic crop in commercial quantities.
This commercial harmony with the land has been a staple philosophy of Refreshed since those days.
In 2000 the company produced its first Lemon Myrtle soap and essential oil. The reaction from customers was immediate. They loved the refreshing feel the products gave them. ‘Pampered’, ‘spoiling myself’ ‘I love it’, these were some of the comments from customers. Refreshed knew it was on a winner.
In that same year Charles Sturt University completed research into Lemon Myrtle essential oil that demonstrated Lemon Myrtle was not only wonderfully refreshing but also more anti-bacterial and anti-fungal than Tea Tree oil.(1)
Made in Byron Bay
Refreshed has long-standing relationships with professional Lemon Myrtle growers in the Byron Bay area of New South Wales. These farmers were the pioneers in not only selecting, growing, harvesting and maintaining plantations but also in conducting research into the best Lemon Myrtle that can be produced.
Their farming expertise combined with their care for the land was exactly what Refreshed wanted for sustainable commercial production of Lemon Myrtle essential oil.
The most current working plantations were established in 1996, designed to be as ecologically pure as possible. The layout of the plantations takes into account the slope of the land and sunlight angles, and specialised mechanical harvesting equipment was designed and built specifically for Lemon Myrtle plantation trees.
The plantations are grown chemical-free. There are no pesticides or herbicides used, and all irrigation water comes straight from the sky.
The company has even developed its own unique chemical-free fertilising regime specifically tailored to growing the best Lemon Myrtle essential oil producing trees.
These uncompromising farming methods produce Refreshed Lemon Myrtle products as pure as a rainforest and as uplifting as a massage.
Our name is what customers feel
Refreshed people (and customers) believe the Lemon Myrtle range offers the best, natural personal care products you can find and enjoy. They are instantly recognisable by the most uplifting, refreshing lemon aroma and
provide true cosmetic and aromatherapeutic benefits, as pure and natural as the pristine Australian rainforests from which Lemon Myrtle originates.
For personal care or as a gift, give the person an experience of being pampered and a sense of well being.
Those potent feelings are driving the popularity of this all-Australian product that comes straight from the plant with amazing super powers.
(1) Wilkinson J. M., Hipwell M., Ryan T., Cavangh M. A. Bioactivity of Backhousia citriodora: Antibacterial and Antifungal Activity, Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry: Food Chem 2003, 51, 76-81
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