KENALI STEVIA DARIPADA SYARIKAT RCCWW

Stevia is one of 150 species of herbs from the Sunflower family (Astereacea). Officially found in the 19th century by DR. Moises Santiago Bertoni, he named the plant Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni to honour a Paraguay chemist. The plant is indigenous to the tropics and sub-tropics of South America and Middle America. The Stevia which is widely used as a sweetener is extracted from the Rebaudiana species. Other names for Stevia include candy leaf, sweet leaf, sugar leaf, and sweet herb. 

Stevia is a soft stemmed herb with oval-shaped leaves, and smooth stalk with fine bristles. In optimum environments, Stevia can grow in height up to more than 1 meter. The flowers are small and white. For cultivation, the medium used must be porous as to not retain water when it is watered. The use of Stevia as a sweetener was discovered by Europeans in the 16th century. Since then, it has been used widespread in Europe all the way to Asia. 

However, research on Stevia only started in the 19th century when researchers from Brazil heard that a single Stevia leaf can sweeten a bitter gourd and a cup of bitter herb tea. It was then that a research was conducted by a Paraguay botanist named Moises S. Bertoni who then wrote some of the early articles on Stevia. The most unique characteristic of Stevia is it was a natural sweetener with no calorie content whatsoever. 

This characteristic attracted many researchers to conduct research on Stevia. The research on its toxins exposed that the main compound for its sweetness was non-toxic Stevioside.