Pine Pollen vs Steroids (What's in the Pollen and What Moved in Men)

Men who type "pine pollen vs steroids" into Google usually want one answer. Is pine pollen a natural steroid, and will it do what a cycle does? Pine pollen is the pollen of a pine tree, taken a few droppers at a time as a daily plant ritual. Anabolic steroids are lab-made drugs built from the testosterone molecule. The two get compared because in 1971 three Croatian chemists found testosterone itself inside Scots pine pollen, and because two recent pilot studies in men measured their own testosterone climbing while they took a pine pollen tincture.

What anabolic steroids are

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) describes anabolic steroids as "synthetic variations of the male sex hormone testosterone." Doctors prescribe some of them for medical conditions. Men who take them to build muscle use doses that NIDA says "may be 10 to 100 times higher" than the prescribed ones.

They are swallowed as tablets, injected into muscle, or rubbed on the skin as a gel, cream or patch. NIDA also names the two routines that go with them. Cycling means taking steroids for a stretch, stopping, then starting again. Stacking means running two or more steroids at once.

So a steroid is a single chemical, made in a lab, given in a measured dose on a planned cycle. That is the thing pine pollen gets compared to.

Is pine pollen a steroid?

No. Pine pollen is the fine yellow dust released by the male cones of pine trees each spring. Each grain carries two small air sacs that let it travel on the wind. It is a whole plant material, with protein (about 13%, according to a 1996 analysis by Zhao), minerals and a long list of plant compounds alongside the androgens.

It also has a long food history. In China it is song hua fen (松花粉), recorded in herbal texts since the Tang dynasty and listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020). Korean cooks press it into songhwa dasik tea cakes and stir it into songhwa-milsu, a pollen and honey drink. Nobody runs a cycle of tea cakes.

Does pine pollen contain testosterone?

Yes. In 1971, Šaden-Krehula, Tajić and Kolbah published a short paper in the Swiss journal Experientia (volume 27, pages 108 to 109). Testing pollen from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), they identified three androgens.

It was the first time testosterone had been found in any plant. Every later conversation about pine pollen and testosterone traces back to that 1971 result. Our complete guide to pine pollen covers how it is collected and the rest of its history.

Is pine pollen similar to testosterone in what it does for men?

The closer comparison is what happened to men's own testosterone while they took it. Two pilot studies have looked.

In 2024, Wolkodoff, Haase, Mordkin and Beal published an eight-week open-label pilot in the Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports. Ten men aged 47 to 78 took 1 mL of pine pollen tincture a day, split between morning and evening, five days on and two days off. Average total testosterone went from 362.5 ng/dL to 448.4 ng/dL.

The researchers also used the qADAM, a 10-question survey on energy, drive, strength, mood and erections, scored from 9 to 45. The group started at 23.9 and finished at 31.7.

In May 2025, the same team published a second eight-week pilot in younger men, 11 of them aged 25 to 50, on the same 1 mL daily tincture held under the tongue. Free testosterone, the share in the blood that is not bound to proteins, rose from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL. Sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG), the protein that binds testosterone, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.

The numbers in both studies were the men's own hormone levels, measured in their own blood.

Pine pollen vs steroids, side by side

• What it is. Anabolic steroids are synthetic variations of testosterone (NIDA). Pine pollen is the pollen of a pine tree.
• Where it comes from. Steroids are made in a lab. Mara's pine pollen is wild-harvested from Pinus radiata.
• How it's taken. Steroids are swallowed, injected or applied to the skin, often in cycles and stacks. Pine pollen tincture goes under the tongue or into a drink, a dropper or two a day.
• What was measured in men. In the 2024 pilot, total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL over 8 weeks. In the 2025 pilot, free testosterone went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL.

Why men pick pine pollen

Many men looking up this comparison feel flatter than they did at 25 and want something they can take every morning with no needle and no calendar of on and off weeks.

Pine pollen fits that. A dropper under the tongue takes 30 seconds. The taste is soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. The bottle sits next to the toothbrush or in a gym bag.

Men who take it daily describe the change in plain terms. The two reports that come up most are stronger morning wood and more drive, in the gym and in the bedroom.

Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture

50 ml dropper bottle. Wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen.

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How Mara's pine pollen is made

Mara uses wild-harvested pollen from Pinus radiata. The pollen wall is tough, so the grains are cracked open before extraction. The tincture is spagyric: the pollen is extracted, then the minerals left behind are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

Take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. At that rate a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days. It comes in dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract between uses.

Pine Pollen considerations

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

Questions people ask

Is pine pollen a natural steroid?

Pine pollen is a plant, the pollen of pine trees. Testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione were identified in Scots pine pollen in 1971, which is why men call it a natural steroid.

Does pine pollen contain testosterone?

Yes. The 1971 Experientia paper by Šaden-Krehula and colleagues identified testosterone in Scots pine pollen, alongside epitestosterone and androstenedione. It was the first plant in which testosterone was found.

How much did testosterone rise in the pine pollen study?

In the 2024 pilot, average total testosterone in 10 men went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL over 8 weeks. In the 2025 pilot, free testosterone in 11 men went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL.

Do you need to cycle pine pollen like steroids?

Mara's directions are 1 to 2 droppers a day as a daily ritual. The 2024 study used a five-days-on, two-days-off routine, which some men copy.