Extraction of sporopollenin exine capsules from sunflower pollen grains

Sporopollenin exine capsules (SECs) are highly robust natural microscale capsules that can be extracted from plant spores and pollen grains, albeit through complex processing schemes. Herein, we report new insights into pollen processing by alkaline lysis and acidolysis with various process conditions. Alkaline lysis of sunflower pollen grains damages the unique pollen microstructure and acidolysis enables us to devise a simple process to extract SECs from sunflower pollen grains with a uniform particle size distribution. The SECs retain the natural morphology, offering an improved general scheme to streamline pollen processing for biomaterial applications.