Stevia

Stevia (/ˈstiːviə, ˈstɛviə/) is a sweet sugar substitute that is about 50 to 300 times sweeter than sugar. It is extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a plant native to areas of Paraguay and Brazil. The active compounds in stevia are steviol glycosides (mainly stevioside and rebaudioside). Stevia is heat-stable, pH-stable, and not fermentable. Humans cannot metabolize the glycosides in stevia, and it therefore has zero calories. Its taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, and at high concentrations some of its extracts may have an aftertaste described as licorice-like or bitter. Stevia is used in sugar- and calorie-reduced food and beverage products as an alternative for variants with sugar.

The plant Stevia rebaudiana has been used for centuries by the Guaraní peoples of South America, who called it ka'a he'ê ("sweet herb"). The leaves have been used traditionally for hundreds of years in both Paraguay and Brazil to sweeten local teas, and as a "sweet treat".

The legal status of stevia as a food additive or dietary supplement varies from country to country. Stevia has been widely used in Japan as a sweetener for decades. The European Union approved stevia additives in 2011. In the United States, extracts of certain high-purity steviol glycosides have been Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) and may be lawfully marketed and added to food products, but stevia leaf and crude extracts do not have GRAS or Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for use in food.

The genus was named for the Spanish botanist and physician Pedro Jaime Esteve (Petrus James Stevus, 1500–1556) a professor of botany at the University of Valencia.

Swiss botanist Moisés Santiago Bertoni first described the plant and its sweet taste in detail in 1899, while conducting research in eastern Paraguay. Little research was conducted on the topic until 1931, when two French chemists isolated the glycosides that give stevia its sweet taste.

In the early 1990s, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) denied two petitions requesting that stevia be classified as GRAS. Stevia remained banned for all uses until the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, after which the FDA revised its stance and permitted stevia to be used as a dietary supplement, although still not as a food additive.

In 1999, the European Commission banned stevia's use in food products within the European Union pending further research. In 2006 and 2016, research data compiled in the safety evaluations released by the World Health Organization found no adverse effects.

In December 2008, the FDA gave a "no objection" approval for GRAS status to Truvia and PureVia, both of which use rebaudioside A derived from the Stevia rebaudiana plant. The FDA declared that these products are not stevia, but highly purified Stevia rebaudiana extracts. In 2015, the FDA still regarded stevia as "not an approved food additive", and stated that it "has not been affirmed as GRAS in the United States due to inadequate toxicological information". In June 2016, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued an order of detention for stevia products made in China based on information that the products were made using prison labor. As of 2017, certain high-purity steviol glycoside extracts have been GRAS in the US, and may be lawfully marketed and added to food products.