Stevia

Stevia is a sugar substitute about 50 to 300 times sweeter than sugar, its sweetness coming from steviol glycosides, chiefly stevioside and rebaudioside A, extracted from Stevia rebaudiana, a plant native to Paraguay and Brazil that the Guarani people, who called it ka'a he'e, or sweet herb, used for centuries in traditional beverages. Because humans cannot metabolize its glycosides, stevia has zero calories, though at high concentrations its extracts can have a licorice-like or bitter aftertaste and a slower, longer-lasting sweetness than sugar. The Swiss botanist Moises Santiago Bertoni first described the plant's sweetness in 1899, French chemists isolated its active glycosides in 1931, Japan has used it widely since the 1970s, the European Union approved stevia additives in 2011, and in the United States certain high purity steviol glycoside extracts gained GRAS status in 2008, though whole stevia leaf and crude extracts remain unapproved for food use there.