Pine Pollen and ED (What Men Report and What the Studies Found)
Men search "pine pollen and ED" because they have heard that pine pollen carries plant androgens, and they want to know if any of that shows up where it counts. The short version comes from two small pilot studies run in 2024 and 2025. In the first, 10 men aged 47 to 78 took a pine pollen tincture under the tongue for 8 weeks, and their average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. Their scores on a questionnaire that asks about sex drive and erection strength rose with it.
Testosterone was first found in pine pollen in 1971
In 1971 the chemist M. Šaden-Krehula and colleagues analysed the pollen of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione. It was the first time these androgens had been identified in any plant. Pine pollen has carried a reputation among men ever since.
The pollen itself was in use long before anyone measured a hormone in it. In China it is 松花粉, song hua fen, recorded in herbal texts since the Tang dynasty and still listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition). In Korea it goes into songhwa dasik, pressed tea cakes, and songhwa-milsu, a pollen and honey drink. For the wider background on the plant, read our full guide to pine pollen, from the cone to the bottle.
Is pine pollen good for ED, according to the studies?
Two open-label pilot studies, both in the Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports, give men numbers to look at. Both used a pine pollen tincture held under the tongue, and both ran for 8 weeks.
The 2024 pilot in older men
Wolkodoff, Haase, Mordkin and Beal followed men over 45. Ten finished the trial, aged 47 to 78 with an average age of 63. They took 1 ml of tincture a day, half in the morning and half at night, five days on and two days off.
- Average total testosterone: 362.5 ng/dL at the start, 448.4 ng/dL at 8 weeks, a rise of 85.9 ng/dL.
- Average qADAM score: 23.9 at the start, 31.7 at 8 weeks.
The qADAM is the scored version of the ADAM questionnaire (Androgen Deficiency in the Aging Male) published by Mohamed and colleagues in the International Journal of Impotence Research in 2010. Its ten questions cover sex drive and how strong your erections are, along with energy, strength and endurance, mood, falling asleep after dinner, sport and work performance. Each answer is rated 1 to 5, and a higher score means fewer complaints. In this study the height question was dropped, so scores ran from 9 to 45. The men started below the scale's midpoint of 27 and finished well above it.
The 2025 pilot in younger men
The second study, led by Haase, enrolled men aged 25 to 50, and 11 completed it. They took 1 ml twice a day on the same five-on, two-off cycle.
- Calculated free testosterone: 10.48 ng/dL at the start, 11.72 ng/dL at 8 weeks.
- SHBG (the protein that binds testosterone and keeps it out of circulation): 29.1 nmol/L down to 27.4 nmol/L.
- Sexual function score, built from questions taken from the qADAM, SHIM and IIEF erectile function questionnaires: 15.27 up to 20.09.
SHIM and IIEF are the questionnaires urologists use to score erections. The number of men scoring above 15 on the sexual function section went from 6 to 10 out of 11.
Where testosterone fits in pine pollen and ED
The link between testosterone and erectile function is one of the better documented ones in men's health. The European Male Ageing Study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2010 by Frederick Wu and colleagues, followed 3,369 men aged 40 to 79 across eight European centres. Of 32 symptoms they checked against hormone levels, the three most closely tied to low testosterone were sexual: fewer morning erections, low sexual desire and erectile dysfunction. The researchers set the line at total testosterone below 11 nmol/L, about 320 ng/dL, together with those three symptoms.
A 2025 study in the journal Diagnostics by Porav-Hodade and colleagues looked at 411 men assessed for erectile function. Median total testosterone fell step by step with each grade of severity, from 7.05 ng/mL in men with normal erectile function to 3.56 ng/mL in men with severe ED. Free testosterone tracked IIEF scores even more closely than total testosterone did.
Men looking into pine pollen for erectile dysfunction are looking at the same signs these researchers tracked. Morning erections and drive are what the qADAM asks men to rate.
Morning wood and drive are the first things men mention
In forum threads and reviews of pine pollen tinctures, men report the same two things again and again. The first is stronger, more frequent morning wood. The second is more drive, which men describe as thinking about sex more often. They line up with the 2024 and 2025 questionnaire results above, where the sex drive and erection questions moved alongside the hormone numbers.
For a wider look at how men take it and what they track, read pine pollen for men, from dosing to timing.
Why the studies used a tincture
Both pilots gave the pollen as a tincture held under the tongue, and there are practical reasons to take it that way yourself.
A pine pollen grain is wrapped in a wall of sporopollenin, one of the toughest natural materials known. It holds up against strong acids, which is why intact pollen grains turn up in fossil sediments. Raw pollen powder with an intact wall passes through you largely unopened. Cracked-cell pollen has had that wall broken, and Mara's tincture starts from wild-harvested, cracked-cell pollen of Pinus radiata.
The tincture is then made spagyric. The pollen is extracted, and the minerals left behind in the spent plant material are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle. A dropper gives you the same measured amount every morning, with no powder to scoop. It sits in dark Miron glass, which keeps light off the extract for the life of the bottle. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction. Miron is the gold standard.
Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen.
Add to bagA daily ritual that takes 30 seconds
Keep the bottle next to your toothbrush and it becomes part of the morning. One to two droppers a day, held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds and then swallowed, or stirred into water, tea, juice or a smoothie. The taste is soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness. At that dose a 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, so two bottles cover the 8 weeks both pilot studies ran.
The ingredient list is short. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.
Pine Pollen considerations
Contains alcohol. If you're pregnant, nursing or taking medication, ask your doctor before using it.
Questions people ask
How long did the pine pollen studies run?
Both the 2024 and 2025 pilots ran for 8 weeks, with men taking a tincture under the tongue on a five days on, two days off cycle.
What are the pine pollen benefits for ED that men report?
Men most often report stronger morning wood and more sex drive. In the 2025 pilot, scores on questions drawn from the IIEF and SHIM erectile function questionnaires rose from 15.27 to 20.09.
Is there real testosterone in pine pollen?
Yes. In 1971 Šaden-Krehula and colleagues isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from Scots pine pollen, the first time these were found in a plant.
Which pine is Mara's pollen from?
Pinus radiata. The pollen is wild-harvested and cracked-cell, then made into a spagyric tincture in a 50 ml dark Miron glass dropper bottle.