A Phytochemical Screening Procedure for Sweet Ent-Kaurene Glycosides in the Genus Stevia

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Spp. (110) of the genus Stevia, comprising both herbarium and fresh leaf samples, were screened for the presence of sweet ent-kaurene glycosides, using a combination of TLC and HPLC [high-performance liquid chromatography], followed by gc/ms [gas chromatography/mass spectrometry]. Stevioside and rebaudiosides A and C were detected in a Stevia rebaudiana herbarium specimen collected in Paraguay in 1919, and stevioside was observed as a constituent of a Stevia phlebophylla herbarium specimen collected in Mexico in 1889. Steviol glycosides were not detected in any of the other 108 Stevia spp. studied. The phytochemical results obtained in this study are correlated with those of preliminary organoleptic tests on the sweetness of these Stevia samples, and the chemotaxonomic implications of the present findings are discussed.