Evaluation of Dried Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana bertoni) Leaf and its Infusion Nutritional Profile

Abstract

Stevia is a recently cultivated kitchen garden as vegetables and on a large scale by entrepreneurs in Ethiopia for herbal production due to its potential uses as the sweetener (250-330 times sweeter than table sugar). The demand for Stevia currently increased due to its low calories and medicinal values. However, there is no such information about their Nutritional profile evaluation in dried form and its infusion in Ethiopia. The purpose of this study was to evaluate of dried Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana bertoni) Leaf and its infusion Nutritional profile. The dried Stevia leaf had 5.5 g/100 g moisture, 8.2 g/100 g ash,16.2 g/100 g crude protein, 3.8 g/100 g crude fat, 7.9 g/100 g crude fiber, 58.8 g/100 g carbohydrate,359.6 mg/100 g Ca, 102.9 mg/100 g Na,347.4 mg/100 g K, 324.1 mg/100 g Mg, 297.9 mg/100 g Fe, 3.7 mg/100 g Zn, 1.1 mg/100 g Cu and 9.4 mg/100 g Mn, 5.3 mg GAE*/g Total Phenolic Content (TPC), 28.6 mg CE/g Total Flavonoid Content (TFC), 4.6 mg CE/g Condensed Tannin Content (CTC), 0.04 (IC-50, g/mL) DPPH scavenging activity, 6.67 mg AAE/g Ferric Reducing Power (FRAP) and 1.92 mg BHTE/g Total Antioxidant (TAA). This study provides evidence on the nutritional profile of dried Stevia leaf and its infusion.