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The saponin compounds in the tea seed meal may also wash into waterways and harm even more species.

However, the Black Snake Distillery has developed a way of extracting the saponins after harvesting the plant's spiky arms.

The trick with this approach is the addition of an “adjuvant”—an additive that “soups up” the immune system’s response—made from saponin, a compound derived from the bark of the Chilean soapbark tree.

Then Ward’s new high-resolution images—showing tiny particles studded with spike proteins, with honeycomblike saponins floating beside them—flashed on dozens of people’s screens.

Asterisk above the top panel indicates the approximate position of TSARL1. d, The saponin biosynthetic pathway, showing enzymes that catalyse each step of the pathway and the quinoa gene ID for genes encoding each enzyme.