Wild and Sustainably Harvested

What Are Pine Needles?

Pine needles are the narrow, evergreen leaves of trees in the Pinus genus. They protect themselves through cold, sun, wind, and changing seasons with a complex blend of waxes, pigments, terpenes, diterpenic acids, and other plant compounds.

We use whole, dried pine needles that are wild-harvested and hand-picked. For Grounded Tallow Balm, I slowly infuse the needles into tallow and oils. This is not pine essential oil, and it is not pine needle tea. A fat-based infusion favors the oil-compatible side of the leaf, including some terpene compounds, diterpenic acids, natural waxes, chlorophylls, and carotenoids. It does not efficiently pull water-soluble vitamin C, so vitamin C is not one of the reasons I use them.

The result is a much softer expression of pine than a distilled essential oil. The needles contribute their forest character and whole-botanical chemistry without turning the balm into a concentrated volatile-oil product.

Traditional Use and Cultural History

Pine needles have been used wherever pine forests and people have lived together, but not as one universal remedy. Species, place, and preparation all mattered. Needles and young shoots have been made into teas and syrups, used in foods, added to steams and baths, and worked into household and topical preparations.

In Korea, Japanese red pine (Pinus densiflora) needles have a documented history as a food ingredient used for color and flavor, along with folk use around inflammatory concerns. Voyageurs National Park’s Ojibwe ethnobotany record notes that red pine needles were used for “reviving,” while the resin served as waterproof pitch. I like keeping those accounts distinct because they show different relationships with pine rather than flattening them into one tradition.

Some preparations were water-based and drew out the needle’s more polar compounds. Others relied on steam, alcohol, or fat. Our slow tallow-and-oil infusion belongs to that last family of preparations, with the oil-compatible chemistry and gentle forest scent at the center.

Why We Love Them

Pine needles are chemically richer than the familiar smell of pinene. Research has found antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, UV-response, and tissue-repair activity, but it also makes one point very clearly: pine species and extraction method change the result. I keep that variability visible while focusing on the studies that make the most sense for a whole-needle infusion.

They Offer Broad Antioxidant Chemistry

A 2021 study compared essential oils, less-polar organic extracts, and hydroethanolic extracts from 54 pine taxa representing 46 species. Antioxidant activity appeared in all three preparation types, but the strength varied widely. Several of the organic extracts performed as well as or better than the quercetin control in the laboratory assay.

The researchers also found that some crude extracts were more active than individual compounds isolated from them, suggesting that the needle works through the combined chemistry of many constituents. I find that especially fitting for the way we work: we infuse the whole needle instead of reducing it to one isolated molecule.

Lipid-Favoring Extracts Show Anti-Inflammatory Activity

In 2017, researchers made a supercritical carbon dioxide extract of dried Pinus densiflora needles with ethanol as a co-solvent. In stimulated mouse macrophages, it lowered nitric oxide and iNOS and reduced the inflammatory messengers IL-6 and IL-1β, alongside reduced STAT1 and STAT3 activation.

Supercritical carbon dioxide is not the same as our slow infusion, but it is useful here because it favors many oil-compatible compounds. A separate 2022 study used an ethanol needle extract and found reductions in oxidative stress and several inflammatory mediators in cells. When the extract was applied topically in a mouse-ear model, it also reduced swelling and myeloperoxidase activity.

Together, those findings help explain why I value pine needles in a balm made for dry, easily overwhelmed skin. The research is species-specific and still early, but the anti-inflammatory direction appears across more than one study and preparation.

Their Diterpenic Acids Have Interesting Collagen-Protection Research

A 2015 study of green and naturally browned Pinus densiflora needles identified trans-communic acid and dehydroabietic acid. The researchers isolated these diterpenic acids from a hexane portion of the extract, which is interesting for us because hexane separates strongly oil-compatible compounds.

The brown-needle extract and trans-communic acid lowered UVB-induced MMP-1 in human keratinocytes and in a three-dimensional human skin model. MMP-1 is one of the enzymes involved in breaking down types I and III collagen, and the treatments also reduced collagen degradation in the skin model.

This was lab-grown human skin rather than a clinical trial, but it is one of my favorite pine-needle findings. It connects a nonpolar compound within the leaf to a very specific pathway involved in UV-stressed skin and visible aging.

They Have Interesting Research Against Malassezia

A 2016 study separated a Pinus densiflora needle extract into n-hexane, ethyl acetate, n-butanol, and water layers. The n-hexane, ethyl acetate, and n-butanol layers inhibited Malassezia furfur in the laboratory, while the water layer did not show the same antifungal activity.

The n-hexane result catches my attention because it represents the most oil-compatible layer. The ethyl acetate layer also sharply lowered IL-1β and TNF-α in Malassezia-stimulated macrophages, bringing the fungal and inflammatory sides of the research together.

Malassezia is part of the normal skin and scalp ecosystem, but it is also associated with dandruff and seborrheic dermatitis when conditions shift. I find this especially useful for understanding the needle’s skin and scalp chemistry, even though the study did not test our finished infusion.

A New Topical Study Found Impressive Repair Results

In 2026, researchers studied 70 percent ethanol extracts of Pinus pinaster and Pinus halepensis needles. They placed the dried extracts at 10 percent into a simple petroleum-jelly ointment and applied them daily in a rat burn model. Both pine-needle ointments reached complete measured wound closure by day 21, while the untreated and ointment-only groups remained lower.

The original extraction was not a direct oil infusion, so it is not identical to ours. What I find so interesting is that the finished test preparation was a simple, water-free fatty ointment. That gives us a closer look at how concentrated needle solids can behave when delivered topically in an anhydrous base.

The same paper also reported antioxidant and analgesic effects in animal testing. Those portions were not topical, but I still find them interesting as part of the broader evidence for the needles themselves.

They Bring Pine Character Without Essential Oil

Pine needles naturally contain volatile monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes, including compounds such as alpha-pinene, beta-pinene, beta-caryophyllene, and germacrene D, although the profile changes greatly among species. Some of that scent can move into a warm fat infusion, while many of the needle’s less volatile oil-compatible compounds remain part of the botanical material.

That gives Grounded its gentle, green, foresty note without adding pine essential oil. I prefer this softer whole-needle presence because scent is only one small part of why the ingredient is there.

Quick Answers

Are pine needles the same as pine essential oil?

No. Essential oil is a distilled, concentrated collection of volatile compounds. Our infusion begins with whole dried needles and a warm fat base, so it carries a broader but much gentler oil-compatible profile. Grounded contains no added essential oils.

Do pine needles add vitamin C or vitamin A to the balm?

Not in a way I use as a claim. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so an oil infusion is not an efficient way to capture it. Pine needles also contain carotenoids, and some carotenoids can act as vitamin A precursors, but that is not the same as adding measured vitamin A to a finished balm. I would rather be precise about the terpenes, diterpenic acids, waxes, and pigments that make more sense in fat.

What makes pine needles interesting for dry or reactive-feeling skin?

Human clinical research on a direct pine-needle oil infusion is still waiting to be done. What we do have points to anti-inflammatory signaling, antioxidant activity, UV-stress pathways, and topical repair. That is why I like pine needles as one supportive botanical inside a richer, barrier-focused formula for dry or reactive-feeling skin.

Are pine needles antifungal or antibacterial?

The clearest skin-relevant result I found is the laboratory antifungal activity against Malassezia furfur, including in the nonpolar n-hexane layer. Antibacterial results vary by species and preparation, and much of that work uses essential oil or water-and-alcohol extracts. I would not call our infusion a broad antimicrobial, but the Malassezia result is a solid and relevant reason to value the ingredient.

Why do you infuse pine needles into tallow and oils?

Because the fat base is well suited to the needle’s oil-compatible chemistry. Gentle warmth can carry some terpenes, diterpenic acids, plant waxes, chlorophylls, and carotenoids into the base without adding water or relying on a distilled essential oil. It also produces the softer scent I want in Grounded.

Does wild-harvested mean certified organic?

No. Wild-harvested means the needles were gathered from naturally growing trees rather than a cultivated crop. Organic is a separate certification or production claim. I use wild-harvested because that is the sourcing description we can verify for these needles.

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Pine Needles