Pine Pollen vs Turkesterone (and What Each Study Measured)

Pine pollen vs turkesterone is a choice between two plant extracts that both get sold as a natural testosterone supplement. One comes from a mint-family herb in the mountains of Central Asia. The other is the yellow dust from the male cones of a pine. They were studied for different things. Turkesterone's trials measured muscle, strength and a growth factor called IGF-1. Pine pollen's trials measured men's own testosterone in their blood. If your testosterone is the number you care about, that difference decides it.

Turkesterone comes from a Central Asian mint

Turkesterone is an ecdysteroid, one of a family of steroid-like compounds that insects use to control molting and growth. Some plants and fungi make them too. USADA, the US anti-doping agency, says they protect plants against insect attack and stress, and that spinach and quinoa carry some of the highest levels among food plants.

The supplement form comes from Ajuga turkestanica, a mint-family herb 40 to 60 cm tall that grows on rocky ground up to about 2,500 m in the Pamir-Alay mountains of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. A 2024 review in the journal Nutrients reports that it has the highest turkesterone content of the plants they looked at. One extract measured 2.1% turkesterone by weight, plus 0.9% of a close relative, 20-hydroxyecdysone (also sold as ecdysterone). Folk medicine in the region used it for obesity, hair loss and stomach complaints.

Turkesterone is a capsule or a powder, usually labelled at 500 to 1,000 mg a day, and lifters often run it in cycles of 8 to 12 weeks.

What the turkesterone studies measured

The study everyone quotes used ecdysterone, the sister compound. In 2019, Isenmann, Parr and colleagues published a 10 week trial in Archives of Toxicology. Forty-six young men did a strength program, and those taking ecdysterone gained more muscle mass and added more to their one-rep bench press than the comparison groups. The result was strong enough that the authors asked for ecdysterone to be banned in sport, and WADA added ecdysteroids to its Monitoring List in 2020.

Turkesterone itself has been tested in two small trials. Harris and colleagues (Muscles, 2024) gave 11 recreationally active men aged 18 to 35 a single dose of 1,000 mg, 2,000 mg or a placebo on separate visits and tracked IGF-1 and resting metabolism for 24 hours. IGF-1 ran higher in both turkesterone conditions than placebo, though the gap was too small to count as a statistical change. A 2025 student research trial at Nova Southeastern University gave 31 active adults 500 mg a day for four weeks and scanned them with DEXA, and body composition did not change between groups.

Turkesterone vs testosterone

Turkesterone and testosterone share a steroid backbone and very little else. That same Nutrients review states that 20-hydroxyecdysone does not bind the androgen receptor, the switch testosterone flips in your muscles and tissues. USADA describes newer evidence that ecdysteroids may act through an estrogen receptor instead. Lifters like turkesterone because it is sold as a muscle compound that leaves their own hormones alone.

That also means none of the trials above reported a man's testosterone level. They were looking at muscle, IGF-1 and body fat. A man who wants his own testosterone higher is buying turkesterone for a result it was never tested on.

Pine pollen vs turkesterone, if testosterone is the goal

Pine pollen's link to testosterone starts in a lab in Zagreb. In 1971, M. Šaden-Krehula and colleagues analysed Scots pine pollen and isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from it, the first time testosterone was found in a plant. Our full guide to pine pollen covers the history, from Tang dynasty herbal texts to Korean songhwa tea cakes.

The two human pilots went straight at the number men want to see:

• Wolkodoff and colleagues (2024) gave 10 men aged 47 to 78 a pine pollen tincture for 8 weeks. Average total testosterone went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL, and scores on the qADAM, a questionnaire men fill in about drive, energy and mood, rose from 23.9 to 31.7.
• A 2025 pilot in 11 men found free testosterone (the share your body can use) went from 10.48 to 11.72 ng/dL, while SHBG, the protein that binds testosterone up, fell from 29.1 to 27.4 nmol/L.

Both studies used a tincture held under the tongue. That is the form Mara makes.

What men report lines up with those questionnaire scores. Men who take it describe stronger morning wood and more drive, in the gym and in bed. Our post on pine pollen for men covers more of what men say about it.

How Mara's Pine Pollen is made

Mara's pollen is wild-harvested from Pinus radiata and cracked-cell, meaning the tough outer wall of each grain has been broken open. It is then made as a spagyric tincture. The pollen is extracted, and the minerals left behind after extraction are returned to the liquid, so the whole plant ends up in the bottle. Simple ingredients: premium quality extract.

Taking it is quick. One to two droppers under the tongue, hold for 20 to 30 seconds, then swallow. Take it in the morning before coffee or before training, and keep the bottle next to your toothbrush. The taste is soft and lightly earthy with a faint sweetness. A 50 ml bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, and it is kept in dark Miron glass. Dark amber glass is a step in the right direction for keeping light off an extract, and dark Miron glass is the gold standard, which is what Mara uses.

Turkesterone, by comparison, is a daily capsule or scoop of powder that lifters cycle on and off every 8 to 12 weeks. The tincture takes half a minute in the morning and stays in the same spot on the shelf.

Pine Pollen – Spagyric Pine Pollen Tincture

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

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Turkesterone vs tongkat ali

Men comparing these two are usually choosing between muscle and hormones. Tongkat ali is the root of Eurycoma longifolia from Malaysia and Indonesia, and its best known trial measured hormones. Talbott and colleagues (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 2013) gave 63 moderately stressed adults 200 mg a day for four weeks, and testosterone came out 37% higher than placebo, with cortisol 16% lower. Turkesterone has no hormone result like that. So if your shortlist is turkesterone, tongkat ali and pine pollen, the two worth weighing for testosterone are the two that were measured on it, and pine pollen is the one with testosterone found in the plant itself.

Pine Pollen considerations

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

Questions men ask about pine pollen and turkesterone

Is turkesterone a steroid?

Turkesterone is an ecdysteroid, a plant and insect compound with a steroid-shaped backbone. A 2024 review in Nutrients reports that its relative 20-hydroxyecdysone does not bind the androgen receptor that testosterone and anabolic steroids act on.

Can you take pine pollen and turkesterone together?

Some men do, taking turkesterone for training and a pine pollen tincture each morning for the testosterone side, since the two were studied for different results.

Does pine pollen contain testosterone?

Yes. Šaden-Krehula and colleagues isolated testosterone, epitestosterone and androstenedione from Scots pine pollen in 1971, the first plant in which testosterone was found.

How long did the 2024 pine pollen study run?

The 2024 Wolkodoff pilot ran 8 weeks, and total testosterone in its 10 men went from 362.5 to 448.4 ng/dL over that time. One Mara bottle lasts 30 to 50 days, so two bottles cover a similar stretch.