Potential sweetening agents of plant origin: I. Purification of Stevia rebaudiana sweet constituents by droplet counter-current chromatography

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni (Compositae) is a sweet herb indigenous to elevated terrain on the borders of Brazil and Paraguay. Eight sweet constituents have so far been isolated from this plant. In the last decade S. rebaudiana extracts and isolates have been used commercially in Japan to sweeten a variety of food prducts. Currently, there is a great deal of interest in the potential use of stevioside and other S. rebaudiana constituents as non-nutritive sweetening agents for other markets around the world. The authors recently became involved in a multi-disciplinary investigation of the physico-chemical and biologica properties of certain plant-derived sweeteners. In this communication the authors wish to present details of a droplet counter-current chromatographic (DCCC) method for the rapid purification of stevioside.