I often read that tincture is more potent than the raw pollen. While probably not affordable, I've often wondered if one could do gel caps with the tincture.
I've also wondered how pine pollen would favor with a delivery system like a liquid SEDDS, or if anything effects its absorption. IE: bioperine, astragin, grape fruit extract, bergamottin, etc...
I completely disagree about tincture being better.
You may have read that, but that doesn't make it true.
But what is true is that a tincture only uses a fraction of the raw materials and therefore is only a fraction of the price to make; so of course some brands want to make you believe that because its more profitable for them.
As for your statement on gel caps with the tincture:
Pine Pollen tinctures are alcohol based and the alcohol would eat through the gel caps. They also wouldn't be more effective anyway because the dosage wouldn't be high enough.
Some things don't require a high dosage just bc the dosage is bad; some things require a high dosage just because they require a high dosage to be effect. And Pine Pollen is something you would not want to standardize a certain way because there are a lot of benefits to be had from it from a lot of different active constituents.
In terms of absorption/bioavailability/benefit - the main thing with Pine Pollen is something we've already got covered which is making sure the Pine Pollen is cracked shell wall.