Sex hormones and corticosteroids in pollen of Pinus nigra

In continuation of earlier investigations on steroid hormones in the pollen of pine, we have isolated and quantitatively determined the following steroids by radioimmunoassay and fluorimetric methods: testosterone, testosterone together with epitestosterone, respectively, and androstenedione; progesterone was determined by radioimmunoassay alone. In addition, we have tried to isolate cortisol, cortisone, 11-deoxycortisol, corticosterone and 11 -deoxycorticosterone and to characterize these compounds by specific reactions. The intensity of these reactions were used to estimate the amounts of corticosteroids in pollen.