Herb Stevia Rebaudiana’s Functionalities, Safety, and Applications: A Review

Author(s): Ji Li, Pradeep Thaker, Deshou Jiang, Qingrong Huang, Chi Tang Ho.

Herb Stevia rebaudiana extract, also known as sweetleaf, was originally discovered for its sweetening function. Researches show that this plant extract is embedded with multiple functionalities such as antioxidant, antidiabetics, anti-inflammation, and antimicrobial. This review article helps re-arrange the scientific affairs of those stevia extract’s functions. Sweetness indexes of steviol glycosides were summarized together for comparison while various in vitro, in vivo approaches were reviewed to quantify those functions’ capacities and to depict the related mechanism. The regulation of steviol glycoside compounds such as rebaudioside A was established by global authorities such as US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Joint FAO/ WHO Expert Committee (JECFA) to ensure the safety endorsement prior to commercialization. In applications, we first used sentiment analysis to catch a good command of the stevia-containing products’ market performance. Then, we investigated the product development progress of stevia-containing food products in the categories of beverage, bakery, dairy, and confectionery. Those stevia-containing food consumer goods can be acceptable by certain customers.