ASAT - Associazione Scienze Agrarie Tropicali
ASAT Sci-Tec - Vol. 1, 200 9
Stevia rebaudiana : a potential new sugar crop
C. Grassi 1, R. Giunta 1, E. Mugnai 1, A. Pardini 2,
1
= ASAT,
2
= DiSAT Università di Firenze, andrea. [email protected],
Riassunto
Stevia rebaudiana è una coltura tradizionale in
America Latina, potenzialmente molto utile come
dolcificante a bassissime calorie.
Il suo uso si sta
diffondendo a livello mondiale. Varie ricerche indicano
che potrebbe essere una nuova coltura per le aree
tropicali e subtropicali, e anche un nuova coltura estiva,
a crescita rapida, in aree temperate miti e per le aree
mediterranee incluse varie zone dell’Italia.
In tutte
queste aree potrebbe contribuire alla diversificazione
colturale e a fornire redditi spesso maggiori di colture
più comuni.
A potential new sugar crop
Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a tall herb native of Eastern Paraguay widely used in Latin
America.
Reports of useful effects in human body (Konoshima and Takasaki, 2002;
Jayaraman et al., 2008) favour its commercialization in several countries including Latin
America, Canada, China, Japan, Indonesia, USA (Andolfi et al., 2006).
The plant contains Stevioside, Rebaudiside , Rebaudioside C, Dulcoside A, with strong
sweet taste but with very few calories (Lawrence, 2006). Consequently Stevia is potentially
extremely useful for food industry and dietary treatment (Montoro et al., 2009).
Stevia suffers cold, usually does not tolerate temperatures below 9 C° but occasionally
can tolerate temperatures near to zero, and 20-24 C° are necessary for a rapid growth (Singh
and Rao, 2005). On the other side, Stevia has remarkable water needs, leaves and stems can
wilt rapidly and also recover rapidly if the stress is not prolonged, this is a limitation to the
area suitable for its cultivation. It grows fast and can be grown as an annual herb during late
spring and summer. Consequently Stevia could become an interesting and profitable new crop
for the tropics, for warm areas including temperate areas with hot and rainy summer (as an
annual summer crop) and large parts of the Mediterranean (again as annual crop during spring
and autumn or irrigated perennial). The best suitable areas in Italy are the northern plans with
ASAT - Associazione Scienze Agrarie Tropicali
ASAT Sci-Tec - Vol. 1, 2009
mild rainy summers, coastal centre where the sea mitigates the climate, and the south and
islands if irrigation is available to support high productivity. Productivity ranges according to
climate parameters, soil fertility, management researches have found a range from 4.4 t ha -1
leaves dry matter in Brasil (Fronza and Folegatti, 2003), 13.3 at the first year (Ruta et al.,
1999). In Italy it ranged from 3.1 t ha-1 at the first year to about 6.3 at the 5th year (Andolfi et
al., 2006; Tedone et al., 2009) and it was 16.76 t ha-1 in annual cash crop irrigated in Central
Italy (Pardini et al., submitted, 2009). This range of values suggests the possibility of good
yields and incomes also in Italy. Nonetheless a lot of research remains to be done on biomass
production in different climates and with variable nutrients and water availability before the
plant can become an industrial crop also in Italy.
Bibliography
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