Pine Pollen Androgens, Which Ones It Contains and How Much

Ten grams of Scots pine pollen gave up 0.8 micrograms of testosterone, 1.1 of epitestosterone and 5.9 of androstenedione when M. Šaden-Krehula and colleagues analysed it for the journal Experientia in 1971. That was the first time testosterone had been isolated from a plant, and it is where every pine pollen androgen question starts. The androgens in pine pollen are those three, with androstenedione the largest share, and later work on other pine species found the same hormones again.

Does pine pollen contain testosterone?

Yes. The testosterone Šaden-Krehula found in Pinus sylvestris pollen is the same molecule your testes make. The team ran four separate extraction methods on the pollen, and the hormones turned up bound to sugars (as glucuronides) as well as free. When they skipped the step that frees those bound forms, the measured amounts dropped by more than half. Much of the androgen in pine pollen sits locked up inside the grain until it is released.

Here is what each of the three does in a man's body:

• Testosterone, the main male hormone, made mostly in the testes.
• Androstenedione, the hormone one step before testosterone. Your body converts it into testosterone.
• Epitestosterone, a close chemical twin of testosterone that men make alongside it.

Pine pollen androgens across other species

Šaden-Krehula and colleagues went back to the bench in 1979 with black pine, Pinus nigra, and published the results in Phytochemistry. Per 10 grams of pollen they reported about 0.7 to 0.9 micrograms of testosterone, about 0.7 of epitestosterone and 0.7 to 0.8 of androstenedione, plus progesterone. Researchers have since reported testosterone in the pollen of Pinus tabulaeformis and Pinus bungeana (two Chinese pines), and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and androsterone in Scots and black pine pollen.

So the androgen profile repeats from pine to pine. Five androgens have now been named across the genus, and testosterone has turned up in all four pines named here.

What androgen receptors are, in plain words

An androgen receptor is a protein inside your cells that waits for an androgen to arrive. The gene for it sits on the X chromosome. When testosterone, or its stronger relative DHT, binds to the receptor, the receptor lets go of the proteins holding it still, moves into the cell's nucleus and switches particular genes on or off. That is how testosterone actually changes anything in your body. The hormone is the key and the receptor is the lock.

Men carry these receptors in muscle, hair follicles, sweat glands, the prostate and the testes, among other places (a summary from the University of Barcelona's nuclear receptor group lists them tissue by tissue). The more testosterone that is free in your blood, the more of it is available to reach those receptors.

Pine pollen androgen receptors and the catfish study

Men searching pine pollen androgen receptors want to know whether the androgens in the pollen act like androgens. A 2017 study in The Israeli Journal of Aquaculture tested that in fish. Issa Adenigba and colleagues fed Pinus tabulaeformis pollen to African catfish larvae, a species whose sex can be pushed male by androgens in the feed. In the control tanks 50.4% of the fish grew up male. In the pine pollen tanks it was 79.9 to 83.6%, against 89.2% in tanks fed pure testosterone. In the second phase the pine pollen fish also grew heavier than the control fish.

What the studies in men found

Two pilot studies have given men pine pollen and measured their blood. Both used a tincture under the tongue, 1 mL in the morning and 1 mL in the evening, five days on and two off, for 8 weeks.

Neil Wolkodoff and colleagues published the first in 2024 in Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports. Ten men aged 47 to 78 finished it. Their average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. Their score on the qADAM, a questionnaire on sex drive, erections, energy and mood, went from 23.9 to 31.7.

The follow-up, led by Gerald Haase with Wolkodoff, came out in the same journal in 2025. Eleven men aged 25 to 50 completed it. Free testosterone, the unbound share that is available to reach your receptors, went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL. SHBG, the protein that binds testosterone and holds it out of play, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.

Outside the studies, men who take pine pollen daily most often report two things. Stronger morning wood, and more drive through the day. Our guide to how men use pine pollen day to day goes further into what they describe.

Why Mara's tincture is the one to pick

Both studies in men used a tincture taken under the tongue. That is the form Mara makes, and it is built around the problem the 1971 paper ran into: the hormones sit inside a tough grain wall, partly bound to sugars.

• Cracked cell. The pollen wall of wild-harvested Pinus radiata is broken open before extraction, so the liquid reaches what is inside the grain.
• Spagyric. After the pollen is extracted, the minerals left behind are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle.
• Dark Miron glass. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Miron glass is the gold standard, and it keeps light off the extract for the life of the bottle.
• A dropper. One to two droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallowed. A 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

The taste is soft and lightly earthy with a faint sweetness. Keep the bottle by the coffee machine or in your gym bag and take it first thing, before the day gets going. Powder has to be measured and mixed, and it floats on water. A dropper takes ten seconds and fits in a jacket pocket.

Pine pollen also has a long record as food. In China it is song hua fen, written into herbal texts since the Tang dynasty and listed in the 2020 Chinese Pharmacopoeia. Korean cooks press it into songhwa dasik tea cakes. The full pine pollen guide, from the male cones to the Korean tea cakes covers that history.

Pine Pollen considerations

The product page recommendation: "Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it."

Questions men ask about pine pollen androgens

Which androgens are in pine pollen?

Testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione were isolated from Scots pine pollen in 1971. DHEA and androsterone have since been reported in Scots and black pine pollen.

Which androgen is there most of?

In the 1971 Scots pine analysis it was androstenedione, at 5.9 micrograms per 10 grams of pollen. That is the hormone your body turns into testosterone.

Did the human studies measure free testosterone?

The 2025 pilot did. In 11 men aged 25 to 50, free testosterone went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL over 8 weeks while SHBG fell.

What pine does Mara's pine pollen come from?

Wild-harvested Pinus radiata. The pollen is cracked cell and made into a spagyric tincture in dark Miron glass.