SWEETER THAN SUGAR.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 10 March 1925, Page 3

SWEETER THAN SUGAR.

TWO HUNDRED TIMES. A PARAGUAN PLANT. From the, desert regions of Eastern Paraguay comes a plant containing a. substance nearly two hundred times as sweet as cane sugar. American scientists are experimenting to se© whether its saccharine properties may not be, valuable in modern diet. - The plant, which goes under the simple name of “ka-a he-e”- among the South American Indians, belongs to the family of composites, of which the sunflower and daisy are familiar representatives. Its scientific name is Stevia • rebaudiana. The sweetness which it contains is not a. sugar, hut a glucosid ( somewhat similar to. that found in the root of licorice. The leaves are dried and ground up, and a pinch of them is added to anything that requires sweetening; or they may be soaked in water and sweet liquor prepared. One of the most valuable qualities of this liquid is that it does not ferment, as a syrup does. It might therefore be particularly useful in hot weather, when sugar solutions ferment quickly. • The possible uses of such a plant as this are more or less obvious. It will particularly interest sufferers from diabetes, promising to furnish them with a sweetening that has none of the harmful properties of sugar. Its non-fermentability may be of value commercially, as in the preparation of sweetened beverages. It would also be of value, from this point of view, because it would not tend to favour the

growth of bacteria in the mouth. Extensive tests will be required, of course, before it can be said, that the new substance is wholesome and free from deleterious* effects. If it proves to be reasonably satisfactory in this particular it may have a real place

in modern diet.' The form of sweetening almost universally used is cane sugar, but this is often objectionable because it is a producer of energy as well, and requires the user to digest a concentrated and irritating food, when he perhaps wants no food at all in that connection, but merely sweetening. Many of the objections to cane sugar can be avoided by using a; fruit-sugar or malt sugar; but these are equally producers of energy. The extract of ka-a he-e would, like saccharine, be a simple sweetening, .with little or no food value. Tlie introduction to science of this ' rare plant is due to the veteran Paraguayan botanist, Dr. Moises S. 'Ber- - toni, who first heard of it from Indians about 1887, and sought" it for many years until in 1899 he finally received from a friend a little packet of broken leaves, stems and flowers, from which he was able to make the first description of it. Four years later a. Catholic priest succeeded in getting a single live plant and sent it to Dr. Beftoni', who grew it and has in later years been* able to furnish specimens to other persons interested. The Office of Foreign Seed •uid Plan* Introduction of the United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., recently secured a picket- of seeds, from which he has grown 800 plants to distribute to experimenters in the United States. The plant has perennial roots, so that cutting the stem does not terminate its life. Dr. Bertoni calculated that two crops might- be cut each year, with a possible total yield of two. or three tons to the acre. Prolonged tests will he necessary to establish the real value of this now plant immigrant, hut it .is ccrtainlv one of the most interesting ■ that has come to the United States in recent rears, and at-first sight seems to offer gteat possibilities.