Stevia rebaudiana

I mentioned in my previous post that I have bought a new plant and yes, the name of the plant is in the title of today's post. As told in the same previous post, I did a little goggling on the plant and here's what I have obtained thus far. From what I have found about the plant, stevia rebaudiana or simply stevia is a member of the sunflower family, Asteraceae. It has been used for centuries as a sweetener and it is only recent that we began intensively farming and using this plant as a natural sweetener due to its inherent sweetening property. According to wikipedia, yes wikipedia again, the plant contains extracts that are 300 times sweeter than the sugar that we use and the plus side is it is low in calories. These extracts are completely natural and they are definitely safer to consume than artificial sweeteners such as aspartame which may be detrimental to the human health. Unlike the rest of the artificial sweeteners, stevia extracts have been found to be medicinal and beneficial to the human health. Some of the ailments that the plant is purported to treat are heartburn, high blood pressure and it is highly useful for diabetics who have to take carbohydrate-controlled diets. Since it is low in carbs and so many folds sweeter than ordinary sugar, just a small amount is needed in the everyday diet. Moreover, with the medicinal properties, it is clearly a good alternative to the run-of-the-mill sugar. However, the use of stevia as a food addictive is still banned in many countries, especially Singapore. I find it a pity that such a commercially viable and healthy substitute is banned as a addictive due to insufficient studies and unsubtantiated claims that it may be harmful to health. Nevertheless, it can be used as a supplement and privately, we can still take it as a homeopathic cure. 

I will be taking cuttings of my stevia plant soon. Hope the cuttings will be able to grow into new stevia plants. Given the right conditions, I think they will. I guess only time will tell and I will definitely post the updates once I have done that. Watch this space!