SEPARATION OF STEVIOL GLYCOSIDES FROM Stevia rebaudiana USING DIFFERENT AQUEOUS EXTRACTION TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Stevia rebaudiana has recently gained the attention of the food industry as one of the natural sweeteners. The sweet flavour is contributed by the glycoside compounds, especially the rebaudioside A and stevioside, which are the stevia main chemical markers. The aim of the work reported here was to compare the different extraction techniques of stevia leaves using different technologies such as the high pressure and ultrasonic on the extraction of steviol glycosides. In this paper, the extraction techniques yielding the highest glycosides from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana were determined using hot water extraction (HWE), pressurised liquid extraction (PLE) and ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). The steviol glycoside yields were quantified by two chemical markers, rebaudioside A and stevioside of Stevia rebaudiana using highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. The result showed that the HWE managed to obtain 1,110 mg of steviol glycosides. The PLE obtained 294 mg steviol glycosides and the UAE obtained 427.5 mg steviol glycosides. As a conclusion, the results suggested the most efficient technique for stevia extraction in this study was the HWE.