Evergreen Saponins: SCET biotech startup sustainably solves production challenges

What do soft drinks, vaccines, facial cleansers, and fire extinguishers have in common? They all rely on a class of polyfunctional molecules called saponins. Saponins are so versatile that they are experiencing increasingly high demand, making their limited natural supply a crucial environmental, economic, and health problem.

Just-launched startup Evergreen Saponins aims to transform this industry by building sustainable, scalable domestic saponin production. The project is spearheaded by Berkeley FoodTech Ingredients Lab (BFIL) Director Ricardo San Martin, whose engineering technology was foundational to the growth of the saponin industry in Chile over 30 years ago.

San Martin’s co-founders are Siwen Deng (PhD, Plant Biology ‘19) and Jessica Schwabach (Molecular and Cellular Biology ‘21). Deng and Schwabach are Dr. San Martin’s former students, and after the success of their plant-based meat startup Sundial Foods, they are combining their scientific, industrial and entrepreneurial knowledge with Dr. San Martin’s to produce an accessible domestic saponin source within the next few years.

An Essential Molecule: The Saponin Sustainability Problem

Saponins are extracted from the soapbark tree, Quillaja saponaria, a slow-growth tree native to central Chile. As a natural GRAS product with superior emulsifying properties, Quillaja extract generates a $60M annual market in applications ranging from food and beverage to agricultural and industrial. One particular Quillaja saponin, known as QS-21, is one of a small number of well-characterized adjuvant molecules used in FDA-approved vaccines, a use case that has accelerated demand for Quillaja saponin extract drastically within the past five years.

Currently, the majority of Quillaja saponin production comes from the wood and bark of logged old-growth Chilean trees. San Martin realized that with the wave of high demand and overexploitation in the past few decades, combined with unstable environmental conditions due to climate change, the current logging system would be unable to sustainably meet industrial demand.

Evergreen’s Technology

San Martin began independently researching alternative saponin production methods at UC Berkeley and UC Davis plantation sites.

Evergreen’s technology focuses on sustainably harvesting Quillaja leaves instead of bark and wood, allowing trees to remain healthy and productive long-term while maintaining the functional properties to meet industry standards. Their cultivation systems and proprietary extraction and purification process are designed to optimize saponin yield and purity while maintaining functional integrity and reducing environmental impact. This innovative approach has the potential to transform both the food and beverage and the vaccine industries. Evergreen has already established plantations across California, with a water consumption 8 times less than that of traditional crops, like almond and avocados.

Partners and Competitive Advantage

Evergreen’s key partners include BioMADE, Berkeley IPIRA, NSF iCorps, and Open Philanthropy.

As the first mover in this field and the only U.S.-based saponin producer, Evergreen maintains a competitive advantage bolstered by their sustainability leadership connections and technological improvements. With their first customer already secured, the operational plan is to plant their first commercial-scale orchards during the 2025 season to support production of the valuable extracts.

University-Level Scientific Support: Berkeley FoodTech Ingredients Lab

Launched this fall, BFIL is a creative space connecting students, researchers, startups, and industry partners to explore, test, and commercialize food ingredient innovations. San Martin, Deng, and Schwabach, who have all contributed to BFIL’s development, hope this platform will enable researchers and entrepreneurs to advance plant science and commercialize their breakthroughs as scalable, market-ready solutions.