Professor Silvia Vignolini, Sparxell’s Chief Scientific Advisor, first encountered the fruits of Polia condensata in the collection of the British Museum. More than a century after they were first collected, their colours were as vibrant as the day they were picked.

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It turns out that the colour vividness occurs because of the peculiar arrangement of the cellulose chains in the cell wall of the fruits, giving the fruit an intense structural colouration—one of the brightest colours of all biological materials.

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Many brightly coloured plants and animals, including some birds, butterflies, and beetles, evolved intricate and sometimes highly elaborate microscale arrangements to achieve striking colours and effects.

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Dr Benjamin Droguet, Sparxell’s Founder & CEO, worked as part Professor Vignolini’s group at the University of Cambridge to demonstrate the use of industrial machinery to replicate the same vibrant colours found in nature using plant-based cellulose.

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Sparxell was then born to provide nature’s most exquisite and sustainable colours at commercial scale.