Dennenstuifmeel / Pine pollen

Stuifmeel bestaat vooral uit eiwitten (7 - 35 %), koolhydraten (15 - 35 %), vetten (2 - 15 %) en water (5 - 40 %) en daarnaast uit mineralen (kalium, magnesium, calcium, ijzer, fosfor, zwavel, mangaan, silicium, koper) en aminozuren. In stuifmeel zijn veel vitamines (B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavine), B3 (nicotinamide), B6 (pyridoxide), B8 (biotine), B9 (foliumzuur), B12), nicotinezuur, C (ascorbinezuur), pantoteenzuur, in mindere mate A (retinol), D (ergosterol) E (tocoferol), K (fytomenadion) en rutine) aangetroffen.

The Pinus Sylverstis variete for example contains: 80 ng/g of testosterone, 110 ng/g of epitestosterone, and 590 ng/g androstenedione (source).

Pine pollen is also a complete protein with 22 amino acid’s. Containing more than 100 enzymes, and more than 15 vitamins and 30 minerals…

…Along with all the essential fatty acids (omega 3’s, 6’s, and 9’s)…

…It’s also richest known source for testosterone boosting plant sterols and brassinosteroids.

But let’s get back to those androgens and how they can boost testosterone levels:

Some people claim that there’s not enough of testosterone or other androgens in pine pollen that they would make any noticeable differences in the body. However if one gram of pine pollen contains 80 nanograms of testosterone, then 100 grams of the stuff would contain 8,000 ng’s of the actual hormone.

An average man has somewhere around 500 ng’s of testosterone per deciliter of blood, out of which around 5-20 ng’s is free testosterone that isn’t bound to either SHBG or albumin. (the testosterone in pollen is not bound to proteins either).

Given that an average male also has around 5 liters of blood, which translates into 50 deciliters, means that an average guy with average testosterone would have around 250-1,000 ng’s of unbound testosterone in him.

Suddenly the fact that 100 gram’s of pine pollen contains 8,000 ng’s of actual testosterone doesn’t seem so small anymore 😀

But ain’t some of that testosterone going to be destroyed in the gut before reaching the bloodstream?

Answer: Yes, if you eat pine pollen powder orally, most of the androgens will not make it into the bloodstream due to the fact that the sensitive molecules will be destroyed in our digestive track.

And that’s precicely why I use – and make my own – pine pollen tincture’s:

When the powder and the active androgens are dissolved into the carrier agent (I use 40% vodka) you can simply take few drops of the tincture in your mouth, and wait few minutes until the tincture penetrates into the bloodstream through the thin mucus membranes of the mouth.

(Mucus membranes in the mouth are extremely easily permetable by hormones. The occurrence was witnessed in this study where the researchers found out that the actual act of kissing is an evolutionary mechanism where the male sends testosterone via spit into the women’s mouth which then is absorbed through the mucus membranes into the bloodstream where it increases her likelihood for mating behavior).

So basically when you take pine pollen as a tincture and let it absorb through the mucus membranes into the bloodstream, you’re literally getting a hefty amount of those androgens right into the blood and they don’t have to go through the harsh conditions of the digestive track. At least that’s the theory, as there’s not any human or animal research yer to prove anything.

That in short, is why I use pine pollen tinctures and why I see pine pollen as the strongest natural testosterone booster, even though there’s no scientific studies that would validate my claims.

Conclusion

Pine pollen contains actual testosterone, and even though the amount may seem miniscule on the paper, it’s not when you compare it to the actual amount of androgens in the human blood.

Not only is pine pollen high in androgens, it’s also a great source for bio-active protein (25%) and has a total of more than 15 vitamins and 30 minerals, along with all the essential fatty acids.

Pine Pollen monograph

1.1. Sources

Pine Pollen tends to refer to the pollen derived from Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris[1]) which is an invasive pine species in many North American that has traditionally been used as both a species of Christmas Tree (with Fraser and Douglas Fir trees being more commonly used now) and as an industrial wood source, although other wood source are more commonly used.

At times other species of pine are investigated for their pollen, including pinus densiflora,[2]pinus massoniana, pinus yunnanensis, and pinus tabulaeformis.[3]

Pine pollen refers to pollen derived from pine trees (the genera known as pinus) but does not appear to refer to any particular species within this genera, although the Scots pine may be the most commonly used source (in part due to its availability on the market)

Pine pollen appears to have usage as a Traditional Chinese Medicine but the species used are pinus massoniana and pinus tabulaeformis,[4][5] not the Scots pine from where testosterone has been isolated from.

There may be traditional usage of pine pollen as medicine, but this refers to two less commonly seen species of pine and not Scots pine

1.2. Composition

Pine pollen (pinus sylvestris unless otherwise specified) tends to contain:

Vitamin D as Vitamin D3 at 200ng/g (8 IU per gram) while the active hormone 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D is at 10-300ng[6]

Testosterone (80ng/g[7]), epitestosterone (110ng/g[7]), and androstenedione (590ng/g[7]); the testosterone being slightly higher than Royal Jelly (12-36ng/g[8]) but similarly too low for appreciable anabolic effects, and the steroids are likely in glucuronidated forms[7]

Pollen from Scots pine appears to contain steroid molecules (vitamin D and testosterone) are doses which are likely too low to have appreciable effects in humans following oral consumption

2Longevity

2.1. Rationale

One study in isolated human diploid fibroblastic cells (model of cellular senescence[9]) incubated with 1-2mg/mL pine pollen (species not specified) appeared to increase population doublings per week (23-27%) and maximal population doublings (12-15%) with no apparent concentration dependence.[4] The increased senescence seen with D-galactosane in vitro was attenuated with pine pollen associated with reduced PTEN and p27Kip1 expression.[4]

In rats injected with D-galactose (rodent model for premature aging[10][11] thought to be related to AGE formation[12]) oral ingestion of 500-1,500mg/kg of pine pollen extract is able to hinder AGE formation and symptoms of aging with the higher dose being comparable in potency to 100mg/kg aminoguanidine.[4]

Preliminary evidence suggest an anti-aging role of pine pollen in regards to D-galactosamine injections in mice and in isolated cells, although the oral dose used in the mouse study was significantly higher than what is seen with supplements currently sold

3Neurology

3.1. Analgesia

An ethanolic extract of pine bark from densiflora (8% yield) at 100-200mg/kg orally to mice appears to have acute analgesic properties in acetic-acid writhing and formalin injection tests in mice with a potency comparable to 50mg/kg aminopyrine (reference drug), and this was associated with antiinflammatory effects (carrageenan and formalin induced paw edema) nonsignificantly greater than 10mg/kg ibuprofen.[2]

Preliminary evidence suggests moderately high doses of pine pollen (ethanolic extracts) may have analgesic properties with a potency comparable to reference drugs; the species investigated is not the one where testosterone was isolated from

4Inflammation and Immunology

4.1. Macrophages

An extract of pine pollen (pinus densiflora; 70% ethanolic extract reaching 8% yield) is known to have antioxidative properties at concentrations above 500µg/mL in vitro (lipid peroxidation and protein carbonylation), while at 50-100µg/mL in macrophages there appears to be nonsignificant concentration-dependent reductions in nitric oxide production from LPS stimulation.[13] Macrophage secretion of TNF-α was hindered in parallel with nitric oxide, and while IL-6 was mostly unaffected IL-1 secretion was reduced to less than unstimulated control.[13]

When looking at mechanisms, incubation of this pinus densiflora extract (10µg/mL) was associated with complete prevention of JNK phosphorylation although the other MAPKs (p38 and ERK) were not affected.[13]

Limited evidence suggests an antiinflammatory effect, with particular efficacy towards IL-1 secretion and JNK inhibition (may underlie the anti-rheumatic properties that are also seen in preliminary evidence). This occurs that concentrations that, while not confirmed to be effective following oral ingestion, may plausibly occur

4.2. Arthritis

An ethanolic extract of pine pollen from densiflora (8% yield) at 100-200mg/kg orally to mice appears to be able to reduce Arachidonic acid induced ear edema with a potency similar to 10mg/kg indomethacin, but with a more rapid onset at 1 hour (comparable at 3 hours).[2] This same extract over the course of three weeks in mice injected with Freund's Complete Adjuvant (FCA; can induce rheumatism[14]) was able to partially attenuate edema with no dose-dependence and normalized spleen weight (increased in FCA control) and cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α)[15] while later in collagen induced arthritis (DBA/1J mice) when the extract was fed for 49 days normalized swelling and clinical scores of arthritis.[15]

It should be noted that at least one study noted that while TNF-α and IL-1β were fully normalized with the extract, IL-6 was reduced to levels below even the control without FCA[15] which was replicated in collagen induced arthritis, and while rheumatoid factor was slightly attenuated the increase in a collagen-specific antibody was almost fully prevented relative to collagen control.[15]

Although higher than normal doses have been used, it appears that ethanolic extracts of pine pollen have respectable antiinflammatory properties in rodent models of inflammation and arthritis. This may be related to possible immunosuppressive properties (assessed by a significant reduction in antibody production)

5Safety and Toxicology

5.1. Allergies

Although significantly less than other trees such as birch,[16] pine trees are known to possess antigens which may trigger allergies, with the nuts[17] as well as the pollen.[16] Pine (the pinus genera) tends to have cross-reactivity in between species of this genera[18] and belongs to the order of coniferales alongside cypress and cedar trees (both in the cupressaceae genera), but cross reactivity between pinus and cupressaceae (despite both being in the coniferales family) does not seem to be a huge concern.[18][19][20]

It is possible (also less frequent among tree allergies) to be allergic to pine trees, and when one is allergic to pine trees it seems that they may be allergic to all species of pine trees and supplementation may trigger an allergic reaction; persons allergic to related trees (cypress and cedar) may not necessarily be sensitive to pine

References

  1. Antinociceptive and antiinflammatory activities of pine (Pinus densiflora) pollen extract

    1. Wang YM, Wang HJ, Zhang ZY Analysis of pine pollen by using FTIR, SEM and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis . Guang Pu Xue Yu Guang Pu Fen Xi. (2005)

    2. Mao GX, et al Antiaging effect of pine pollen in human diploid fibroblasts and in a mouse model induced by D-galactose . Oxid Med Cell Longev. (2012)

  2. Effective Components and Pharmacological Function of Pine Pollen

  1. Testosterone in royal jelly

Pine Pollen - Ancient Medicine for a New Millennium by Stephen Harrod Buhner, Foreword by Daniel Vitalis. ABOUT THE BOOK

Although the Western world has been undergoing its greatest herbal renaissance in over a century, the medicinal actions of trees are often overlooked, perhaps none more so than pine. Given the drive for a new herb-of-the-day that will simulate excitement in the general populace (e.g. rhodiola, maca), it is astonishing that pine has been unrecognized for so long. This is particularly perplexing since the pollen of pine trees has been used for millennia in China and Korea as both food and a particularly powerful tonic and adaptogen, especially for the elderly. The fairly recent realization that it is a powerful phytoandrogen (that is, a plant that contains testosterone) has probably done the most to stimulate contemporary interest in the herb. The pollen's androgenic actions are due to a number of substances, not just the testosterone and other male steroids it possesses. In short, pine pollen is a potent, complex, source of natural androgens, including testosterone, and androgen mimics. It is a great nutritional source, especially of amino acids, vitamins and minerals and is an excellent general tonic for the human body, useful in preventing or alleviating a number of conditions common to aging. Stephen Harrod Buhner is an Earth poet and the award-winning author of fifteen books on nature, indigenous cultures, the environment, and herbal medicine. His work has appeared and been profiled in publications throughout North America and Europe including Common Boundary, Apothosis, Shaman's Drum, The New York Times, CNN, and Good Morning America.

As a kind of Chinese traditional medicine, pine pollen, which is the male spore of pine tree, has been used as a drug and food for thousands of years. Pine pollen has an effect in the treatment of different kinds of diseases such as colds, disease of the prostate, anemia, diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and rhinitis [12–14]. Pine pollen is collected artificially from Pinus massoniana Lamb., Pinus tabulaeformis Carr., and it has the characteristics of a single pollen source, pure quality, and is a stable component. Pine pollen powder, called “natural micronutrient storeroom,” is rich in many kinds of body-demanding amino acid, minerals, vitamin, enzyme, and flavonoids [12]. Although it is well proposed that pine pollen may have antiaging effect due to its various benefits on human health, the direct supportive experimental evidence linking the drug with aging has rarely been reported so far. So, it is interesting to investigate whether pine pollen possesses any antiaging effect in vitro and in vivo.

Here, the antiaging effect of pine pollen in vitro was firstly investigated by using the human diploid fibroblasts (2BS) cell line, which has been well characterized and widely used as a cellular senescence model. Then, the accelerate aging model in mice induced by D-galactose was used to evaluate the effect of pine pollen against aging in vivo. We treated a group of 5-month-old C57BL/6J mice daily with D-galactose, D-galactose combined with various dosages of pine pollen (500, 1000, 1500 mg/kg, resp.), D-galactose combined with AGEs formation inhibitor AG, and control buffer for 8 weeks. At the end of the treatment, learning and memory abilities, serum and cerebral AGEs levels, indicators for antioxidant activity, and proinflammatory cytokines levels were determined. Our results demonstrated that pine pollen could retard the aging process in cells and mice thus presents pine pollen as an attractive agent with potential to retard aging and attenuate age-related diseases in humans.

12. He X, Sun X, Yu Z. Effective components and pharmacological function of pine pollen. Journal of Northeast Forestry University. 2007;35(9):78–80.

13. Lee KH, Choi EM. Effect of pine pollen extract on experimental chronic arthritis. Phytotherapy Research.2009;23(5):651–657. [PubMed]

14. Lee KH, Kim AJ, Choi EM. Antioxidant and antiinflammatory activity of pine pollen extract in vitro.Phytotherapy Research. 2009;23(1):41–48. [PubMed]

https://hagezussen.wordpress.com/2016/06/05/over-dennen-stuifmeel/

Phytother Res. 2009 Jan;23(1):41-8. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2525. Antioxidant and antiinflammatory activity of pine pollen extract in vitro. Lee KH1, Kim AJ, Choi EM.

To determine the medicinal properties of pine pollen, the antioxidant and antiinflammatory activities of the ethanol extract of pine pollen extract (PPE) were investigated. PPE displayed a strong free radical scavenger activity on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical and hydrogen peroxide. It was observed also that the antioxidant activity, measured by the ferric thiocyanate method, increased with the addition of PPE to the linoleic acid emulsion system. PPE was also found to inhibit significantly the amount of malondialdehyde and protein carbonyls formed from liver homogenate. Like the antioxidant activity, the reducing power of PPE was excellent. Thereafter, the study investigated the effects of PPE in modulating the production of pro-inflammatory mediators in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated RAW 264.7 macrophages, and the effect of PPE on interleukin (IL)-1beta-induced matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) production and mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) activation in the human synovial sarcoma cell line, SW982. PPE was found to inhibit the production of nitric oxide, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, IL-1 and IL-6 in LPS-activated macrophages. Treatment with PPE at 10 microg/mL significantly (p < 0.05) inhibited IL-1beta-induced MMPs (MMP-1 and -3) production in SW982 cells. IL-1beta-induced JNK activation was inhibited by PPE (10 microg/mL), whereas p38 and ERK1/2 were not affected. These findings suggest that pine pollen is a potential antioxidant and beneficial for inflammatory conditions through down-regulation of JNK and MMPs.

Phytother Res. 2009 May;23(5):651-7. doi: 10.1002/ptr.2526. Effect of pine pollen extract on experimental chronic arthritis.

Lee KH1, Choi EM.

The effects of pine pollen extract (PE) on Freund's complete adjuvant (FCA)-induced arthritis and collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) were investigated. The oral administration of PE (100 and 200 mg/kg per day) for 21 days after subcutaneous immunization with FCA, significantly reduced hindpaw swelling and the production of inflammatory cytokines (TNF-alpha, IL-1beta and IL-6) compared with the FCA-induced arthritis group. Treatment with the PE (100 mg/kg) also decreased the serum levels of LDL-cholesterol and increased HDL-cholesterol contents compared with those of the arthritis group. Since CIA is a model of some types of human autoimmune rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the study examined whether PE is efficacious against CIA in mice and investigated the possible antioxidant potential of PE on CIA. Arthritis in DBA/1J mice was induced by subcutaneous immunization with bovine type II collagen. PE (100 and 200 mg/kg) was orally administered once daily for 49 days after initial immunization with type II collagen. The arthritis score and paw edema were markedly suppressed in the groups treated with PE. Moreover, administration of PE (100 mg/kg) for 49 days reduced the serum levels of rheumatoid factor, anti-type II collagen antibody, TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, IL-6, protein carbonyl, advanced glycation endproducts, malondialdehyde and LDL-cholesterol compared with that of CIA mice. These results suggest that the pine pollen might be beneficial in the treatment of chronic inflammatory disorders.

Antiaging Effect of Pine Pollen in Human Diploid Fibroblasts and in a Mouse Model Induced by D-Galactose Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2012; 2012: 750963.Published online 2012 Apr 17. doi: 10.1155/2012/750963PMCID: PMC3345248

Gen-Xiang Mao, 1 Ling-Di Zheng, 1 Yong-Bao Cao, 1 Zhuo-Mei Chen, 2 Yuan-Dong Lv, 1 Ya-Zhen Wang, 1 Xi-Lian Hu, 1 Guo-Fu Wang, 1 ,* and Jing Yan 1 ,*

The present paper was designed to investigate the effect of pine pollen against aging in human diploid fibroblast 2BS cells and in an accelerated aging model, which was established by subcutaneous injections with D-galactose daily for 8 weeks in C57BL/6J mice. Pine pollen (1 mg/mL and 2 mg/mL) is proved to delay the replicative senescence of 2BS cells as evidenced by enhanced cell proliferation, decreased SA-β-Gal activity, and reversed expression of senescence-associated molecular markers, such as p53, p21Waf1, p16INK4a, PTEN, and p27Kip1 in late PD cells. Besides, pine pollen reversed D-galactose-induced aging effects in neural activity and inflammatory cytokine levels, as indicated by improved memory latency time and reduced error rate in step-down test and decreased concentrations of IL-6 and TNF-α in model mice. Similar to the role of AGEs (advanced glycation endproducts) formation inhibitor aminoguanidine (AG), pine pollen inhibited D-galactose-induced increment of AGEs levels thus reversed the aging phenotypes in model mice. Furthermore, the declined antioxidant activity was obviously reversed upon pine pollen treatment, which may account for its inhibitory effect on nonenzymatic glycation (NEG) in vivo. Our finding presents pine pollen as an attractive agent with potential to retard aging and attenuate age-related diseases in humans.

Determination of reduced glutathione, cystein and total thiols in pine pollen powder by in situ derivatization

ABSTRACT: 5,5′-Ditho-bis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) Ortho-phthalaldehyde Derivatization Glutathione (GSH), cystein (CySH) and total thiols in pine pollen powder were determined by spectrometric, fluorometric and high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) assays utilizing 5,5′-dithio-bis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) (DTNB, Ellman's reagent) and o-phthaldehyde (OPA) as derivatizing agents. The pollen sam-ples were extracted with phosphate buffer solutions (PBS) containing excess derivatizing agents concomitant with ultrasonic cell rupture. In this way, thiol groups in the samples could be effectively blocked by in situ forma-tion of relatively stable derivatizing products just after the pollen cell ruptured, thereby effectively preventing thiol groups from oxidation during sample preparation and making it possible to perform sensitive and accurate detections. Using a precolumn derivatization method, DTNB, GSH and CySH, as well as other thiol compounds can be determined or estimated by the HPLC method. Total thiols in the samples were determined by the spectromet-ric method using DTNB as the derivatizing agent. GSH was also selectively determined by the fluorometric method using OPA as the derivatizing agent. The detection results indicated that abundant thiol compounds, such as GSH, CySH and thiol protein, existed in pine pollen powder with measured amounts of 0.50– 0.53 μmol • g −1 of GSH, 0.41 μmol • g −1 of CySH and 4.15 μmol • g −1 of total thiols.

Full-text · Article · Jan 2014 · Microchemical Journal

Xiao-Yong Zhang Xiao-Yong Zhang Yu-Lian Piao Yu-Lian Piao Sheng-Yun Cui Sheng-Yun Cui Yong-Ill Lee Yong-Ill Lee

"This medicine has had both edible and medicinal functions for over thousands of years. The books Shen Nong's Herbal Classic (2400 years ago) and Chinese Pharmacopoeia indicate that P. massoniana pollen has always been highly regarded for its function in health protection [29]. In this study, we extracted TPPPS, which was a water-soluble polysaccharide with extremely high hydrophilicity and viscidity. "

Taishan Pinus massoniana pollen polysaccharides promote immune responses of recombinant Bordetella avium ompA in BALB/c miceFull-text · Article · Sep 2013 · International immunopharmacology

Xue Zhao Xue Zhao Manfei Liang Manfei Liang Pingping Yang Pingping Yang +6 more authors... Fanxia Guo Fanxia Guo