Pine – Pinus Family
Swedish name: Tall
Parts used: Needles, Innerbark,
Can be harvested all year round.
* The white innerbark can be eaten, cooked or raw – contains calories
* Pinecones can be eaten when they are green
* Pollen can be gathered in the spring
* The sap from the pine is antibacterial and can be used to disinfect wounds
* The roots of young pines can be boiled and eaten – rich in carbohydrates
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128g mainly gives you:
Vitamin A 200 % DV
Antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor effects of pine needles (Pinus densiflora).
Institute on Aging, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
“Pine needles (Pinus densiflora Siebold et Zuccarini) have long been used as a traditional health-promoting medicinal food in Korea. To investigate their potential anticancer effects, antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antitumor activities were assessed in vitro and/or in vivo. Pine needle ethanol extract (PNE) significantly inhibited Fe(2+)-induced lipid peroxidation and scavenged 1,1-diphenyl- 2-picrylhydrazyl radical in vitro. PNE markedly inhibited mutagenicity of 2-anthramine, 2-nitrofluorene, or sodium azide in Salmonella typhimurium TA98 or TA100 in Ames tests. PNE exposure effectively inhibited the growth of cancer cells (MCF-7, SNU-638, and HL-60) compared with normal cell (HDF) in 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. In in vivo antitumor studies, freeze-dried pine needle powder supplemented (5%, wt/wt) diet was fed to mice inoculated with Sarcoma-180 cells or rats treated with mammary carcinogen, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA, 50 mg/kg body weight). Tumorigenesis was suppressed by pine needle supplementation in the two model systems. Moreover, blood urea nitrogen and aspartate aminotransferase levels were significantly lower in pine needle-supplemented rats in the DMBA-induced mammary tumor model….These results demonstrate that pine needles exhibit strong antioxidant, antimutagenic, and antiproliferative effects on cancer cells and also antitumor effects in vivo and point to their potential usefulness in cancer prevention.”
– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17474862
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Many sources make claims about pine needle tea that have not been studied extensively in humans. For instance, drinking pine needle tea supposedly has a wide variety of health effects, including:
- Congestion and sore throat relief
- Increased mental clarity
- Combating depression
- Suppressing weight gain/preventing obesity
- Lessening of allergy symptoms
- Lowering blood pressure
However, many of these claims have not been adequately tested in humans. Although studies have shown that pine needle extract has anti-cancer, memory boosting, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidative effects, none were done with tea. These studies were also mostly in mice models or on human cells [24, 25, 33, 20, 41].
Read more on https://selfhacked.com/blog/pine-needle/
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Dosage:
In a study (DB-RCT) exploring antioxidant effects, participants were given four pine needle extract tablets daily (two tablets two times a day). Each tablet contained 300 mg of pine needle extract[43].
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“Pine needle essential oil has microbe-fighting action Usually, the compounds (monoterpenes) in the oil reduce energy generation in the bacteria and this way kill the bacteria. These compounds (monoterpenoids and monoterpenes) also affect fungi in a similar way, by disrupting the structure of cells [15, 16, 17].
The antioxidant abilities of pine needle extract are attributed to the phenolic compounds (which can donate hydrogen atoms to the harmful free radicals) [18].
The memory-boosting effects of pine needle extract are most likely related to its antioxidant properties, which can protect the brain from damage (via reducing oxidative stress) [19].”
DANIEL GALOVAN 