Plant
Stevia
Stevia rebaudiana
Also known as: Stevia rebaudiana, candyleaf
A small shrub in the daisy family (Asteraceae), native to the highlands of eastern Paraguay and southern Brazil. The leaves contain steviol glycosides — natural compounds 50–300× sweeter than sucrose by weight, with essentially no caloric content. Used by the Guaraní peoples as a sweetener and traditional medicine for centuries before European contact; only commercialized globally in the late 20th century, especially after Japanese and South Korean food-industry adoption in the 1970s–80s. Now a major component of the global zero-calorie sweetener market.
Scientific
Stevia rebaudiana is in Asteraceae (the daisy family). The sweetness comes from steviol glycosides — primarily stevioside (~10% of leaf dry weight) and rebaudioside A (rebA, ~3%). RebA tastes cleaner with less bitter aftertaste than stevioside, which is why commercial stevia products are often labeled “rebaudioside A” or “Reb A” rather than just stevia extract.
Steviol glycosides pass through the human digestive system without being absorbed for caloric value. Gut bacteria break them down to steviol, which is excreted. This is the mechanism behind stevia’s zero-calorie status.
Cultural and historical
The Guaraní peoples of present-day Paraguay and Brazil used the plant — which they called ka’a he’ê (“sweet herb”) — as a sweetener for [[yerba-mate|yerba mate]] tea and as a traditional medicine for stomach complaints. Spanish chronicles from the 16th–17th centuries note the plant but did not commercialize it.
The species’ modern commercial trajectory:
- 1899 — Swiss botanist Moisés Bertoni formally describes the plant
- 1931 — French chemists isolate stevioside
- 1971 — Japan begins commercial stevia cultivation and use, especially in soft drinks and pickled foods
- 2008 — FDA approves rebaudioside A as a “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) sweetener in the US
- 2010s–2020s — global expansion; Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and other major food companies launch stevia-sweetened beverage lines
Global production
Top producers: China (which dominates leaf production; ~80% of global supply), Paraguay (the plant’s home country, still significant), Kenya, USA. Most commercial stevia is processed into extracts rather than sold as whole leaf.
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Shares approach with: [[zinnia]] · [[yerba-mate]] · [[yarrow]] · [[wormwood]] · [[tarragon]] · [[sunflower]]
- Member of: [[plants]]
Sources
- Wikipedia — Stevia
A plant entry in the 0mn1.one [[directory]].
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