Nutritive value of Masson Pine pollen (Pinus massoniana) in comparison to wheat bran and effects on stool characteristics in a pig model

The use of pollen from the Masson Pine (Pinus massoniana) in the traditional Chinese medicine has a long history and its medical application was already mentioned in the earliest Chinese pharmacopeias written during the Tang and Ming dynasty (LI, 1978; SU, 1957). Up to now, one of the main application fields of the artificially sampled pollen is the cure of chronic constipation, especially in older men (ZHANG, 1993). However, in recent years, there were some rapid advances in collection, storage and processing techniques and therefore availability of Pine pollen is not longer restricted to medical use but it is also available for the food and cosmetic industry. Despite the long tradition of medical use of Pine pollen in China, there is a lack of experimental data describing the physiological basis on which the