Source and Extraction of Steviosides

Steviosides, also known as stevioside, stevioside, or stevioside, are natural sweeteners extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, a plant in the Asteraceae family. Stevia is native to Paraguay and Brazil in South America and has since been introduced for cultivation in many countries and regions around the world, including Jiangsu, Fujian, and Xinjiang in China, where it is now cultivated on a large scale. The extraction process typically involves multiple steps, including leaf drying, ethanol extraction, ether precipitation, and methanol recrystallization, to produce high-purity steviol glycosides.