[subratasarkar]

I am new to this forum and reading since last one week about Stevia and got interested for it’s potential to replace sugar as a sweetener in our day to day life.

Whereas sugar cane is now being considered to produce ethanol for mixing with fossil fuel due to increase in crude price and price of sugar are going to be high in near days there is a possibility to replace sugar with stevia.

While going through the discussions and various literature I have understand that the content of stevioside and Rebaudioside A are the cause of sweetness of this plant and also prices are determined by the content of it. Higher the percentage of stevioside and Rebaudioside A higher the price of stevia leaves. But I have noticed that most of the buyers are interested to know about the percentage content of stevioside and not Rebaudioside A, whereas Rebaudioside A is much sweeter than stevioside.

I want to know that what are the factors that drive the content of stevioside and Rebaudioside A and why Rebaudioside A content is not considered along with stevioside and then deriving at net sweetener content.

Also I am interested to grow this herb, I am staying in Murshidabad, West Bengal, which is 80 kilometer north of tropic of cancer, please tell me the feasibility to grow stevia in this region. The land is now producing traditional crops.

Regards,

Subrata Sarkar