The invention discloses a safe and environment-friendly vegetable preservative. The preservative comprises a core material and a capsule wall covering the core material, wherein the capsule wall is prepared from raw materials including gelatin, carboxymethyl cellulose and a curing agent; the core material is compound essential oil prepared from components as follows: 30%-40% of mint essential oil, 20%-30% of cinnamon essential oil, 20%-30% of clove essential oil, 5%-10% of citronella essential oil and 5%-10% of chili essential oil. The invention further discloses a preparation method of the safe and environment-friendly vegetable preservative. The compound essential oil prepared from the mint essential oil, the cinnamon essential oil, the clove essential oil, the citronella essential oil and the chili essential oil is adopted as the core material, the microcapsule preservative is prepared with a compound gel technology, the preservative is safe, environment-friendly and low in cost, the preservation time of vegetables is effectively prolonged, preparation is simple and easy to control, and the actual production requirement is met.