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Stevia rebaudiana, commonly known as stevia, is a perennial shrub in the sunflower family of the Asteraceae (Compositae). It was originally found by the Guarani natives of Paraguay growing along the edges of the rainforest. Stevia, which is often referred to as “The sweet herb of Paraguay,” has been used for more than 1500 years by the people of Brazil and Paraguay. They called it ka’a he’ê or sweet herb, and used it to sweeten the local yerba maté tea as medicine and as a “sweet treat.”

Dr. Moisés Santiago Bertoni discovered this plant in 1888. He gave a sample to Paraguayan chemist Dr. Ovidio Rebaudi who conducted the first complete study of stevia leaves. In 1905, Dr. Bertoni named the plant Stevia rebaudiana in honor of both Dr. Rebaudi and the Spanish botanist Dr. Pedro Jaime Esteve, who was the first European said to have studied the plant in the 1500s.

The leaves of stevia are about 30 times sweeter than sugar, whereas their sweet compounds called steviol glycosides are typically 200-300 times sweeter than sucrose. The major constituents isolated from the leaves of stevia are the potently sweet diterpenoid glycosides, namely stevioside and rebaudioside A.