STEVIA LEAVES
Before expanding into the commercial plantation phase we went through a meticulous stevia cultivar development program.
We collected several potential commercial varieties and conducted numerous field trials. We monitored the biomass and steviol glycoside yield of all the varieties for a few seasons and we were successful in identifying the best-performing variety for our agro-climate. We selected for physical characteristics linked to high biomass and steviol glycoside yield. We then went through a multi-generation genetic selection process to further improve the performance of the identified varieties.
We use proprietary fluid bed drying systems for quickly drying our leaves with no quality deterioration. After drying, our leaves retain the green colour and do not caramelise. Correctly dried leaves ensure clean extracts and trouble-free downstream processing of the liquid extract to produce pure glycosides. We pack our dried leaves in hermetically sealed packages for long shelf life and minimal quality loss, extending shelf-life to at least six months.
Our leaves are high in total steviol glycoside content with more than 70% Rebaudioside A - one of the best tasting and most commercially useful glycosides. The content of other desirable minor glycosides including Rebaudiosidea D and M are also higher than average.
The tannins, fats and wax content of our dried leaves are low preventing the need for pre-treatment of the leaves with organic solvents before water extraction. A high content of glycosides in the leaves ensures low extraction and purification cost to produce globally competitive final products.