Dry Leaf and Steviol Glycoside Productivity of Stevia rebaudiana in the Western United States

Abstract

<jats:p>Stevia (<jats:italic>Stevia rebaudiana</jats:italic> Bertoni) is a perennial herbaceous plant native to Paraguay, where it was used by the native Guarani peoples for centuries. Although steviol glycosides from stevia are powerful natural noncaloric sweeteners, stevia has been cultivated and commercially available only for the past 50 years. Cultural practices are still in development, and productivity potential in the United States is largely unknown. Currently commercial growers and processors worldwide are seeking to maximize the productivity of rebaudioside A, a steviol glycoside. The trials reported here examined the effects of location, harvest strategy, and cultivar on stevia dry leaf yield, steviol glycoside content, and steviol glycoside yield. Six or seven stevia cultivars were grown for ≈5 months at four western U.S. locations, with an irrigation criterion of 20 kPa. Stevia at every location was subjected to two harvest strategies: either one harvest at the end of the season or two harvests, one midseason and another at the end of the season. The main plots at each location were the stevia cultivars, and the split plots were the harvest strategies in a randomized complete block, split-plot design with four replicates. Dry leaf yield, leaf steviol glycoside content, and leaf steviol glycoside yield varied by cultivar, location, and cultivar by location, but not by harvest strategy or interactions of harvest strategy with location or cultivar. Dry leaf yield averaged 4.12 Mg·ha<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> with significant differences by cultivar and location. One of the steviol glycosides, rebaudioside A yield averaged 300 kg·ha<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> with significant differences by cultivar and by interactions of location with cultivar. Leaf productivity was greater at Ontario, OR, than at Hanford, CA, Indio, CA, or Yuma, AZ. Dry leaf yield greater than 7 Mg·ha<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> and rebaudioside A yields greater than 500 kg·ha<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> were observed at Ontario. Stevia perenniated at Hanford and Indio, providing the option of multiyear harvests from a single planting.</jats:p>

Stevia Rebaudiana Bertoni, a Source of High-Potency Natural Sweetener—Biochemical and Genetic Characterization

“…Stevioside content in the studied group of genotypes ranged from 2.68% in the genotype from India to 8.09% in the genotype from Pakistan ( Table 1). The values for stevioside obtained in this study were higher than those reported by Parris et al [16] and Vouillamoz et al [17]. Raina et al [18] analyzed stevia leaves from India and showed the presence of stevioside in the range from 4.25% to 7.32%, and rebaudioside A in the range from 2.01% to 4.13%, which was confirmed in the present study.…”

“…A comparison of rebaudioside A content in the studied group of genotypes showed the lowest content (1.17%) of this compound in the genotype from Malaysia, and the highest (4.48%) in the genotype from Australia. The determined content of rebaudioside A was lower than that reported by Parris et al [16], Pereira et al, [19] and Vouillamoz et al [17]. In turn, Gardana et al [20], Goyal et al [4], Atteh et al [21], Jaworska et al [22] and Khiraoui et al [14] obtained lower rebaudioside A content in the raw material.…”

Characterization of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni Accessions Cultived in Southern Brazil

“…In this case, lodging which is an undesired characteristic (Wu & Ma, 2016) was also positively correlated with height. Both accessions produced in the first cut a total of 457 kg ha -1 and 427 kg ha -1 of Reb-A, respectively, which was superior of what was found by Parris et al ( 2016) are larger than the average Reb-A (300 kg ha -1 ) found in different stevia cultivars grown in regions of Western United States. In the region of the Rio Grande do Sul State, in Southern Brazil the maximum Reb-A was 175.7 kg ha -1 (Pereira et al, 2016).…”

Induksi mutasi Stevia rebaudiana dengan perendaman kolkisin secara in vitro (Induced mutation of Stevia rebaudiana through colchicine soaking in vitro)

“…Perbanyakan setek stevia melalui kultur in vitro telah dipelajari (Sumaryono & Sinta, 2011). Cepatnya pembungaan menyebabkan tanaman stevia di Indonesia memiliki kandungan glikosida steviol serta produktivitas per panen lebih rendah dibandingkan negara subtropis, dimana produktivitas daun kering mencapai 15-35 g/tanaman (Mishra et al, 2010), 20,7 g/tanaman di India (Kumar et al, 2014) dan 50-70 g/tanaman di Bulgaria (Nikolova, 2015), 45,78 g/tanaman di Amerika (Parris et al, 2016), sedangkan di negara tropis seperti Brazil, produktivitas daun keringnya berkisar 8,7-43,9 g/tanaman (Pereira et al, 2016). Tanaman yang lambat berbunga mampu mengakumulasi glikosida steviol lebih banyak serta biomassa lebih tinggi (Pereira et al, 2016).…”

“…Hal ini memungkinkan penggunaan reb A secara tunggal. Klon generasi baru memiliki kandungan reb A lebih tinggi dibandingkan steviosida (Parris et al, 2016), salah satunya adalah klon BS yang memiliki kandungan reb A tinggi (8,5%) dan steviosida rendah (2,4%).…”