Application of Stevia rebaudiana

Food and beverage industry

As a non-sugar sweetener

Stevia is a natural sweetener. Its sweetness is 100 - 300 times that of sugar, and it contains no carbohydrates, calories or artificial ingredients. It can be used as a non - sugar sweetener in foods and beverages. For example, stevia sweeteners are used in coffee and tea drinks. Research has found that in coffee and tea drinks with stevia and sugar added, the caffeine content and stevia content actually do not change significantly.

The stability compared with other components.

Under different processing and storage conditions, steviol glycosides (the main sweetening components in stevia) have a certain degree of stability. At a high temperature of up to 120 °C, solid - state steviol glycosides show good stability after 1 - hour incubation, while forced decomposition occurs when the temperature exceeds 140 °C. In an aqueous solution, steviol glycosides are very stable under heat - treatment conditions with a pH value of 2 - 10 and a temperature of up to 80 °C, but their concentration will decrease significantly under strongly acidic conditions (pH = 1). In addition, studies on the interaction of steviol glycosides with water - soluble vitamins, other low - calorie sweeteners, etc. under certain conditions show that after up to 4 - hour incubation with water - soluble vitamins in an aqueous solution at 80 °C, there are no significant changes in steviol glycosides and B - group vitamins, and steviol glycosides have a protective effect on the degradation of ascorbic acid. At room temperature, after 4 - month incubation with other low - calorie sweeteners in an aqueous medium, almost no interaction is found.

Pharmaceutical field; Medical field

Stevia products can be used as raw materials for pharmaceutical manufacturing. Medicinal-grade stevia leaves can be used in the pharmaceutical industry and have certain applications in the field of pharmacy. However, the search results do not mention the specific pharmaceutical application scenarios in detail.