Comparative Study on Botany and Biochemical Characteristics of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni

Abstract

     A study of botanical characteristics and agricultural characteristics of stevia at Chiang Mai Royal Agricultural Research Center (Mae-John-Loang) revealed that there were for 4 sample groups of stevia as of 1) big leaf with leaf hair stevia (BLHS), 2) purple young shoot stevia (PYSS), 3) long narrow leaves stevia (LNLS) and 4) small shrub stevia (SSS). The analysis of genetic correlations of four sample groups showed that they were all genetic differences. The yields were harvested every 45 days after that all of sample groups of stevia were maintained for the next harvest. The analysis of stevioside content showed that PYSS has the highest stevioside content (40.58 g/gDW), followed by SNLS, BLHS and SSS (5.99, 5.94, 5.27 g/gDW, respectively). The saponins contents in LNLS group was the highest as of 52.00 mg/gDW, followed by, SSS, PYSS and BLHS (51.1, 50.82, and 45.20 mg/ gDW, respectively). The antioxidant capacity of stevia was detected in early pre-flowering. It was found that antioxidant capacity in SSS group was the highest as 77.43 percent, followed by PYSS, BLHS and LNLS (76.60, 75.20 and 73.40 percent, respectively). For the phenolic content, it was found that BLHS group contained the highest phenolic content as of 0.058 mg/gDW, followed by PYSS, SSS and LNLS (0.052, 0.050 and 0.041 mg/gDW,
respectively).