Journal of Nature and Applied Research 1(1): 14-27 (2021) eISSN 2792-1352 ©2021 The Authors. Journal of Nature and Applied Research by NAT ARK www.natark.com | 14 REVIEW ARTICLE Stevia rebaudiana – A review on agricultural, chemical and industrial applications Suweesha Amarakoon * Corresponding author Email: suweesha.amarakoon@gmail.com Received: 17 July 2021 / Revised: 14 August 2021 / Accepted: 22 August 2021 Published online: 1 September 2021 Abstract Stevia rebaudiana a perennial shrub of genus Stevia and family Asteraceae is a plant, native to Paraguay while it has been grown in many countries around the world for commercial purpose. The leaf extract of stevia has a sweet taste profile resulted by a group of chemical compounds called Glycosides. Stevia extract is used as a natural sweetener which replaces the sugar or can be marketed as a non-caloric sweetener. The diterpene glycosides in the Stevia leaf extract are responsible for the sweet taste whereas the main responsible glycosides for the sweetening property are Stevioside and Rebaudiosides A. The bitter aftertaste and the natural licorice taste in Stevia is due to high Stevioside/ Rebaudiosides A ratio. Therefore, a promising sugar substitute for the market can be made with a low ratio of Stevioside/ Rebaudiosides A which can be achieved through different techniques such as enzymatic glycosylation and breeding between desirable genotypes. Stevia is used in food industry, medicine industry and by product industry (fertilizer, animal feed). In addition to its sweetening property, Stevia has numerous therapeutic effects including anti-diabetic, anti-hypertension, anti-cancer, antioxidant, anti- obesity and anti-microbial effects. However, there are several controversial ideas on the safety of Stevia consumption in humans while many studies in-vitro and in-vivo have revealed no health risk in consumption of Steviol glycosides. Keywords: Stevia, Stevioside, Glycoside, Rebaudiosides A, Natural Sweetner Introduction Stevia plant is scientifically known as Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni which is also called as sweet leaf, sugar leaf, sweet herb, sugar weed. It is a member of the family Asteraceae. It is a small perennial shrub which grows up to 65 cm tall. It has a leaf structure of oppositely arranged lanceolate to oblancoelate leaves, serrated above the middle. Trichome structures on Stevia leaf surface have two distinct sizes, one large (4–5 μm), one small (2.5 μm) (Shaffert and Chetobar, 1994). It has been used for centuries as a bio-sweetener and a medicine. Its white crystalline compound (glycoside) is the natural herbal sweetener. This compound which carries no calories is over 100-300 times sweeter than table sugar (Goyal et al., 2010). Genus Stevia is reported to have 154 members in which only Stevia rebaudiana and another species produce sweet steviol glycosides. Stevia is a plant native to the valley of the Rio Monday in highlands of North-eastern Paraguay in South America. It grows in sandy soils on the marshland edges, acid infertile sand or muck soils. Apart from its native land, Stevia is grown in Brazil, Canada, USA, China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, and United Kingdom for the