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Transforming agricultural waste into intelligent biopesticide delivery: soil‐disintegrable tea saponin microcapsules for sustainable crop protection
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Researchers made tiny capsules from tea saponin, a natural plant compound, to deliver tea tree oil for controlling tea plant pests and fungal disease. In lab tests, the capsules released the oil faster in acidic conditions, stuck well to leaves after rain, killed fungi and insect larvae, and broke down substantially, which may lower buildup of persistent plastic residue.
Abstract BACKGROUND In order to achieve intelligent and sustainable delivery of tea tree oil (TTO) for tea pest control, we developed a soil‐disintegrable, pH‐responsive microcapsule system (TMS) with an average particle size of 2.05 μm using 15.6% tea saponin as the shell precursor via interfacial polymerization. RESULTS Optimized TMS (1–2 μm) achieved 97.4% encapsulation efficiency. The system exhibited accelerated TTO release under acidic conditions (78.8% at pH 5.0), enabling targeted delivery to fungal infection sites. It demonstrated superior foliar adhesion and rainfastness (84.5% retention) compared to free TTO. Biological evaluations revealed potent dual bioactivity: antifungal efficacy against Colletotrichum camelliae [median effective concentration (EC 50 ) = 0.87 mg mL −1 ] and Phyllosticta theaefolia (EC 50 = 2.3 mg mL −1 ), alongside significant insecticidal activity against Ectropis obliqua larvae (90.0% mortality at 3 mg mL −1 ). CONCLUSIONS This work demonstrates substantial macroscopic disintegration and no apparent phytotoxicity, with the potential to reduce persistent microplastic accumulation, providing a potential strategy to improve its formulation and delivery while retaining its biological activity. © 2026 Society of Chemical Industry.
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