Most men who search pine pollen for libido noticed their drive slipped somewhere in their 40s or 50s, mornings got quieter, and they want something plain they can take every day. Pine pollen keeps coming up in those conversations for a reason. It was the first plant in which testosterone was ever found, and two recent pilot studies in men measured what happened to their hormones and to their answers on questions about sex drive and erections.
Does pine pollen increase libido?
The clearest numbers come from a 2024 pilot by Neil Wolkodoff and colleagues, published in the Annals of Clinical and Medical Case Reports. Ten men aged 47 to 78 (average age 63) took a pine pollen tincture under the tongue, half a dropper in the morning and half in the evening, five days on and two days off, for 8 weeks. Low libido was one of the symptoms the researchers screened for when they picked the men.
Over those 8 weeks, average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL. Their qADAM score went from 23.9 to 31.7.
The qADAM is worth a closer look if libido is your question. It is the quantitative version of the ADAM questionnaire, built at Baylor College of Medicine (Mohamed and colleagues, International Journal of Impotence Research, 2010). The ADAM asks a man ten things, and two of them are whether his sex drive has dropped and whether his erections are less strong. The others cover energy, strength, mood, sleepiness after dinner and work. In the quantitative version each question is scored from 1 to 5, so a higher score means a man rates himself better. The authors wrote that every man reported at least some improvement on each question they scored.
The 2025 study in younger men
The same group followed with a second pilot, published in 2025 with Haase as lead author. This time 11 men aged 25 to 50 used the same tincture on the same schedule for 8 weeks. Free testosterone, the share in the blood that isn't bound up, went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL. SHBG, the protein that binds testosterone, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.
For this study the researchers used a 10 item questionnaire built from the qADAM and two standard erection questionnaires (the SHIM and the IIEF). The sexual function section of that questionnaire rose from 15.27 to 20.09 on a 5 to 25 scale. The total score went from 28.36 to 39.55. In their words, pine pollen "may be a promising option for symptomatic younger men regardless of androgenic hormone levels."
So the two studies point the same way from two age groups. The older men's total testosterone and qADAM scores rose. The younger men's free testosterone rose, SHBG fell and their sexual function scores went up by almost 5 points.
Testosterone in a pine tree, first found in 1971
The idea behind pine pollen for men goes back more than 50 years. In 1971 the researcher Šaden-Krehula and colleagues isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from the pollen of Scots pine, published in Experientia. No plant had been shown to contain them before.
Long before that, the pollen had a place in Chinese herbal practice. Under the name 松花粉 (song hua fen) it appears in herbal texts from the Tang dynasty onward and is still listed in the Chinese Pharmacopoeia (2020 edition). There is more on that history in our complete guide to pine pollen.
Total testosterone rose from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL in 8 weeks.
Pine pollen and male libido, in men's own accounts
On forums, in reviews and in the long Reddit threads on this topic, men describe the same few changes. The two that come up most are more drive, meaning they think about sex more and want it more often, and stronger morning wood. In everyday terms that means waking up hard again, and wanting sex on days it wouldn't have crossed their mind a few months earlier.
Those reports line up with what the questionnaires picked up in both studies, where sex drive and erection strength sit among the questions.
How men take pine pollen for libido
Mara's Pine Pollen is a tincture, and the daily habit takes under a minute.
- In the morning, fill the dropper and take 1 to 2 droppers.
- Hold it under your tongue for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow.
- If you'd rather not take it straight, stir it into water, juice, tea or a smoothie.
- Keep the bottle somewhere you'll see it, next to the kettle or your toothbrush.
At 1 to 2 droppers a day, one 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days. At the lower dose, taken five days on and two off like the study men, one bottle covers their full 8 weeks. The taste is soft and lightly earthy, with a faint sweetness under the warmth of the alcohol.
Why a tincture fits a daily habit better than powder
Pine pollen powder is so fine it floats out of the bag and coats the bench, and it clumps when you stir it into water. The pollen wall is also tough, so whole grains that haven't been broken open hold on to what's inside. Every man in both pilot studies took a tincture held under the tongue, the same way Mara's is taken.
Mara's Pine Pollen starts with wild-harvested, cracked-cell pollen of Pinus radiata, meaning the wall has been broken before extraction. It is made 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.
Then there's the bottle, which keeps light off the extract. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction, but dark Miron glass is the gold standard, and that's what Mara uses. The dropper gives you the same measured dose every morning, which a scoop of powder can't.
Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture
50 ml dropper bottle. Wild-harvested, cracked-cell Pinus radiata pollen.
Add to bagFor the wider testosterone research and dosing, read pine pollen for men.
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
How long does pine pollen take to work for libido?
Both pilot studies measured men after 8 weeks of daily use, five days on and two off. A 50 ml bottle at 1 dropper a day comes close to covering that stretch.
What are the pine pollen benefits for libido found in studies?
In the 2024 pilot, qADAM scores, which include questions on sex drive and erection strength, rose from 23.9 to 31.7. In the 2025 pilot, the sexual function score rose from 15.27 to 20.09 and free testosterone rose from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL.
Should I take pine pollen in the morning or at night?
Take it in the morning, 1 to 2 droppers held under the tongue for 20 to 30 seconds. The study men split their dose between morning and evening.
What kind of pine is Mara's Pine Pollen from?
Mara's uses wild-harvested, cracked-cell pollen of Pinus radiata, made into a spagyric tincture and bottled in dark Miron glass.
