Abstract
A comprehensive utilization of rebaudioside A (RA), stevioside (ST), and rebaudioside C (RC) from natural stevia resources was proposed. The influence of the solvent, solvent concentration, solid-liquid ratio, temperature, and time on the purity and recovery were investigated with response surface methodology. A 99% purity and 81% recovery of the RA were achieved by one crystallization of crude stevia under optimized conditions. Around a 95% purity and 80% recovery of the ST were easily achieved by the recrystallization of less value of mother liquor sugar (MLS) with a certain concentration of isopropyl alcohol–methanol aqueous solution. During the crystallization of the ST, the enriched RC in the liquid phase was more than three times higher than that in the crude stevia, which can provide cheaper RC raw material for the subsequent preparation of very expensive and high-purity RC.
Highlights
Stevia sugar is a natural sweetener extracted from the natural plant stevia
Stevia sugar is considered as the third generation of sugar source in the world due to its low calories, high sweetness, and safety [2], and it has attracted extensive attention in recent years
The main components of stevia are rebaudioside A (RA), stevioside (ST), and rebaudioside C (RC)
Summary
Stevia sugar is a natural sweetener extracted from the natural plant stevia. Its sweetness is 200–300 times that of sucrose, and the calories are only 1/300 the calories of sucrose [1]. The most common industrial method for separating RA from stevia sugar mixtures is crystallization [13]. A high purity RA product can be obtained after crystallization separation based on the solubility difference of RA and stevioside in different solvents; Ma Q [15] is mainly used as an ethanol-based mixed solution to recrystallize stevia for RA. In view of the comprehensive utilization of natural stevia resources, industrial application, and low-cost solvent requirement, the authors performed a series of experiments for optimizing the recrystallization of stevia. The RC could be greatly enriched based on RC’s precipitated property in the recrystallization of RA and ST It could provide a promising method for the comprehensive utilization of RA, ST, and RC from natural stevia resources
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