GLG Life Tech, a company engaged in agricultural and commercial development of stevia, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Global AgriSystem, a Katra Group company, in regard to the introduction of the stevia products of GLG in India.
According to the MOU, both parties will together promote stevia products as a healthy sweetener alternative for food and beverage manufacturers and consumers in India.
The terms of the agreement call for an initial phase of market development for GLG stevia extracts, and also the agricultural development of growing regions for GLG patented stevia plant varieties. The two companies are also in talks about the potential joint construction of extraction facilities in India once the demand is up.
The plant, Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (SrB), has been used for the treatment of diabetes
in traditional medicine. Previously, it was demonstrated that long-term administration of
the glycoside stevioside has insulinotropic, glucagonostatic, anti-hyperglycemic and
blood pressure-lowering effects in type 2 diabetic animal models. [4] However, Dyrskog
SE [stig.dyrskog@ki.au.dk], Jeppesen PB, Chen J, Christensen LP, Hermansen K from
Aarhus University Hospital DK supplemented male Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rats with oral
rebaudioside A (0.025 g/kg BW/day) for eight weeks, they observed no effect on blood
pressure or weight development. [4] At the same time, Nikiforov Al and Eapen AK from
Toxicology Regulatory Services, Inc. Virginia, found no toxicity of dietary administration of
rebaudioside A in Sprague-Dawley rats in a 90-day study. [5]
Rebaudioside A and stevioside are steviol glycosides extracted from the plant Stevia
rebaudiana (Bertoni) and are used in several countries as food and beverage
sweeteners. [2,3]
What is Stevia?
Stevia (rebaudiana) is a plant native to south and central America and belongs to the sunflower family (Asteraceae). Alltogether there are 240 species of the Stevia plant. It is used as an alternative to sugar by the population of Paraguay and Brazil for about 500 years. The extract of the plant is up to 300 times sweeter than sugar. So you only need one or two leaves of it, to sweeten one cup of strong coffee or tea.
Negative Side Effects
There are no really confirmed negative Stevia side effects for humans. However Stevia is forbidden as food additive in the European Union and some other countries. Many people say that there are still not enough confirmed studies which say Stevia isn’t definitively harmful in any ways. In addition to this, there had been experiments with rats and similar animals which showed a little toxic reaction and some reactions on the fecundity of the male rats. The results weren’t dramatic but strong enough to wake some concerns.
These studies have been highly criticized on procedural grounds. In the way the data were handled, also distilled water would appear to be toxic or mutagenic.
The dose of steviol -the substance in Stevia that some people worry about- was way to high. In relation, a human had to eat half of his weight in Stevia leafs every day. In such masses even sugar would be dangerous. If you calculate the daily consumption of Stevia to replace the average daily sugar consumption, a human would eat 4 gram of Stevia leafs what’s not nearly half the weight of a human body.
Stevia has been a healing plant and a sweetener for Indigos for more than hundreds years and has been used in Japan and Brasilia to sweeten lollys, coke and more for about 30 years so far. The USA allows Stevia at least for diet food. Negative Stevia side effects has not been seen yet. This is an additional sign that there are just no bad effects by Stevia for humans. Anyway it would be good if more studies were in progress, but the problem is as always the money. Who’s going to pay for these experiments? The sugar industry, which could be a possible sponsor, is afraid of Stevia killing their business. Maybe if they see the potential of the sweet leaf, as Stevia is also called, someone will take action.
Additionally the World Health Organistation (WHO) published a report in 2006 which says: ”stevioside and rebaudioside A are not genotoxic in vitro or in vivo and that the genotoxicity of steviol and some of its oxidative derivatives in vitro is not expressed in vivo.”
In 2008 the Food and Drug Administration of the USA (FDA) classified Truvia (by Coca-Cola) and PureVia (by PepsiCO) – both substances based on Stevia – to GRAS, Generally Recognized as Safe.
Benefits of Stevia
Stevia has been known for hundreds of years by tribes in south America. In this time it has not only been used as sweetener but as healing plant and healthy food additive.
Unlike artificial sweeteners like aspartame, Stevia is said to have no bad effects on the insulin balancing process of the human body. Instead the report of the WHO mentioned above says it has a negligible effect on blood glucose and could even enhance glucose tolerance. That makes it not only a good natural sweetener for diabetics, but almost for everyone.
In opposition to sugar, Stevia contains no calories but is still 300 times sweeter and it’s also good for the teeth and is effective against caries and dental plaque.
Other experiments and researches found some positive Stevia side effects on obesity and high blood pressure.
All this makes the sweet leaf a natural and healthy alternative to sugar and synthetically produced sweeteners. You can use it for cooking and baking as it’s really heat-resistant and perfectly water soluble.
Story of Stevia
As mentioned before, Stevia was used by the native south Americans since centuries. In 1887 Moises Giacomo Bertoni, a swiss botanist, discovered the plant for the western world, and named it „Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni“.
It took the scientific world about 40 years now to enforce further studies about the plant to find possible Stevia side effects. So the first studies about it were made by the two french chemists Pomeret and Lavieille in 1931. They accomplished to isolate the glycosides (alltogether eight of them) which give Stevia its sweetness and named these compounds stevioside and rebaudioside. They also made some experiments with rabbits, guinea pigs, and chickens, which stated that Stevia isn’t toxic for them.
The first cultivation experiments in Japan were made in 1954. In the 1970’s they extended the cultivation and started to use it as an sugar substitute industrially.
In Europe the approval of Stevia as consumable or as food supplement was delayed because of studies in the 80’s which had affirmed that metabolically activated steviol acts as a mutagen.
But today it seems that the Stevia plant will be approved as consumable in the European Union soon, as it is already partially approved in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, the Swiss and France.
And the Coca-Cola Company already has patented 24 recipes for Cola-Light based upon Stevia in 2007. Probably it’s also an issue that the sugar industry doesn’t want Stevia to become legal or popular, because they are frightened of revenue losses.
You can already buy Stevia powder, Stevia extracts or Stevia as tea, if you are convinced that there are no harming Stevia side effects. It is just forbidden to be used as sweetener in industrially produced food, but not at home for private people.
So it seems that Stevia will be the sweetener of the future as it’s so much more effective than sugar and healthier than artificial sweeteners.
