Brief Description
Evergreen Saponins is commercializing a sustainable, scalable production method for saponins, unlocking a new supply chain for an essential ingredient in processed food, bio-pesticides, medicines, vaccines, and more. Early in his career, company founder Dr. Ricardo San Martin developed techniques for harvesting saponins from the wood and bark of mature wild trees in Chile, fueling demand for the additive worldwide. Now the chemical engineer has invented a breakthrough method to extract commercial-grade saponins from the leaves of Chilean soapbark trees, Quillaja saponaria Molina, that eliminates reliance on wood from the rare evergreens. San Martin is the director and co-founder of the Alt: Meat Lab at UC Berkeley’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology.
Timeline
- 2025. Company founded
Inventors
Clayton Radke, Ricardo Manuel San Martin