Pine Pollen and DHT, from a 1971 Scots Pine Sample to Men's Blood Work

Men who search pine pollen and DHT usually have one of two things in mind: a blood test, or a beard. DHT is the androgen behind facial hair and body hair, and every molecule of it starts life as testosterone. Pine pollen is the first plant testosterone was ever isolated from, in a 1971 analysis of Scots pine pollen. Put those two facts side by side and the link men are looking for runs in a straight line, from the androgens in the pollen to the testosterone in your blood to the DHT your own tissues make from it.

DHT is testosterone after one enzyme step

Dihydrotestosterone, DHT for short, is made from testosterone by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. The StatPearls chapter Biochemistry, Dihydrotestosterone (Kinter, Amraei and Anekar, updated 2023) places most of that conversion in the tissues where DHT does its work. The enzyme comes in three forms, numbered 1 to 3, and type 2 is the most active.

Once it is made, DHT holds on hard. It binds the androgen receptor with about double the affinity of testosterone and lets go about five times more slowly. Blood levels of DHT sit at roughly a tenth of testosterone levels. The same chapter names DHT as the main androgen behind facial hair, body hair and pubic hair, and the one that finishes the growth of the penis and scrotum at puberty.

For a man reading his own numbers, the order is what counts. Testosterone comes first, and the DHT in your body is built from it.

Which androgens are in pine pollen?

M. Šaden-Krehula, M. Tajić and D. Kolbah published the first answer in the journal Experientia in 1971. Working with pollen from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris), they isolated three androgens: testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione. Androstenedione was the most plentiful of the three, at about seven times the testosterone figure.

In 1979 the same group turned to black pine (Pinus nigra) and reported in Phytochemistry that its pollen held testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione as well, along with progesterone. Two species of pine, tested eight years apart, gave the same three androgens.

Each of them is a hormone a man's body knows. Epitestosterone is a close chemical twin of testosterone that men make alongside it. Androstenedione sits one step upstream: in the human steroid pathway mapped by the Reactome database, enzymes of the HSD17B3 family turn androstenedione into testosterone.

Where pine pollen and DHT meet

Line the 1971 paper up against the StatPearls chapter and you get one pathway with three stops. Androstenedione becomes testosterone. Testosterone becomes DHT through 5-alpha reductase. Pine pollen holds the first two stops, androstenedione and testosterone, so its androgens sit on the same road your body uses to make DHT.

That is why men who care about DHT end up reading about pine pollen. The pollen speaks to the upstream end of the chain, and the two human studies in men were built around that end too.

Does pine pollen increase DHT?

The men's studies measured testosterone, the hormone DHT is made from. Both came from the same four researchers, Neil Wolkodoff, Gerald Haase, Robert Mordkin and Stacy Beal, and both were published in the Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports. Each man took a pine pollen tincture under the tongue, 1 mL a day split between morning and evening, five days on and two days off, for 8 weeks.

Ten men aged 47 to 78

In the 2024 pilot, led by Wolkodoff, average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. One man went from 282 to 703. The men also filled in the qADAM, a questionnaire on drive, erections, energy and mood, and the group's average score climbed from 23.9 to 31.7.

Eleven men aged 25 to 50, published in May 2025

The follow-up, led by Haase, added two more readings. SHBG, the protein that binds testosterone in the blood, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L. Free testosterone, the unbound share, rose from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL, about 12% higher after 8 weeks.

Those are the numbers to look at for pine pollen DHT levels. The blood panels in both studies tracked total testosterone, and the 2025 panel added SHBG and free testosterone. Testosterone is the raw material 5-alpha reductase works on, and in these men it went up.

What men notice

Ask men who take pine pollen every day and two reports come up most. Stronger morning wood is the first. More drive is the second, in the gym and in bed. Both sit squarely inside what the qADAM asks about, and in the 2024 group that score rose 7.8 points over the 8 weeks. Our page on how men fit pine pollen into the week covers the routines men settle into.

How you take Mara's Pine Pollen

Both pilots used a tincture under the tongue, and that is the form Mara makes. Mara's Pine Pollen is wild-harvested, cracked-cell pollen from Pinus radiata. Every grain of pine pollen has a hard outer wall, and cracked-cell means that wall has been broken open before extraction.

It is made as a spagyric tincture. The pollen is extracted first, then the minerals left behind in the spent pollen are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle. On the tongue it tastes soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

Take 1 to 2 droppers a day. Hold it under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and swallow, or stir it into a glass of water. Leave the bottle beside the kettle and it becomes part of the morning, before coffee and before the commute. At that rate a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days.

If you are comparing bottles, check the glass. Dark amber is a step in the right direction. The gold standard is dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract, and it is what Mara uses. For the plant itself, from the male cones to Korean songhwa tea cakes, read our full guide to pine pollen.

Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture

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

Add to bag

Pine Pollen considerations

Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.

Questions men ask

Is pine pollen an androgen?

It contains androgens. Scots pine pollen gave up testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione in a 1971 analysis, and black pine pollen showed the same three in 1979.

Is DHT stronger than testosterone?

At the receptor, yes. StatPearls puts DHT's binding affinity for the androgen receptor at about double that of testosterone.

How long did the pine pollen studies in men run?

Eight weeks each, with blood drawn at the start and the end. The men took 1 mL of tincture a day, five days on and two days off.

Which pine does Mara's Pine Pollen come from?

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