5 th International Anatolian Agriculture, Food, Environment and Biology Congress, Tokat, Turkey, 1 - 04 October 2020, pp.223-232
With the discovery by botanist Moisés Santiago Bertoni in 1889, stevia plant became
widespread while stevia leaves had been used by indigenous people in both Paraguay and
Brazil for for hundreds of years. Stevia, which has been cultivated and used in Japan and
Korea for many years, has attracted the attention of manufacturers and private sector in many
countries in recent years.
The most important feature of the stevia extract obtained from the stevia plant is not to
contain calories, fat, saccharin and toxic substances as a natural sweetener and diet food.
Stevia extract, which can be used reliably in all cold hot beverages, such as jam and pudding,
in bakery foods cooked in the oven at high temperatures, is an important plant alternative to
sugar for diabetes and blood pressure patients.
Microclimate areas-rich, Turkey, is suitable for the cultivation of many medicinal and
aromatic plants. Our country, in the subtropical climate zone, is convenient to tropical
intruduced plant material also. In this context, by creating a gene pool from stevia populations
brought to our country from different sources is aimed to develop a standard synthetic variety
that can be used in stevia production.
In the first year of the study, an observation field was established with the plants, brought. In
the following year, in 1072 genotypes, height, branching and weight measurements were
made and leaf samples, taken from all genotypes were dried. As a result of evaluating the
observations and measurements made in 1072 genotypes, glycoside analyzes were performed
in 218 genotypes. Twenty genotypes were selected from among these genotypes by assessing
the obtained stevioside and rebaudioside-A amounts and Reb-A/Stevioside ratio.
Between 2021-2025, which is planned as the second phase of the study, genotype selection
will be made again and multiple cross-breeding and yield trials will be started.