Questions and Answers About Herbal Extracts

Of all the herbal extracts that are available on the market today, liquid herbal extracts are possibly the easiest to use. Herbal extracts can have medicinal as well as culinary and nutritive properties. When it comes to the latter category, stevia extract, or "sweetleaf" is one of the more handy flavor extracts to have on your kitchen shelves - especially if you are concerned with sugar intake. It is one of the best herbal extracts for use as a sweetener and sugar substitute.


The Stevia Sweetener Alternative

stevia liquid is 300 times sweeter than sugar. It is derived from the leaves of the stevia plant, a tropical shrub related to the sunflower. The taste of stevia extract has a slower onset that that of sugar, but also lasts longer.

As you might imagine, a little bit goes a long way; at high concentrations, stevia has a bitter after-taste similar to that of bad licorice.

Because of the current demand for low-carb foods, stevia sweetener has been gaining in popularity among herbal extracts in recent years.


Medicinal Purposes

Like chinese herbs that are used in TCM ("Traditional Chinese Medicine"), stevia may also have some medicinal and therapeutic applications in addition to its culinary role as a sugar substitute. The Guarani Indians of South America have used stevia for centuries to flavor their traditional beverage, yerba mate, but have also used it to treat heartburn.

Medical research suggests that stevia extract could be useful in treating hypertension and obesity. Because it has virtually no effect on glucose levels, diabetics and patients on low-carb diets are finding stevia sweetener to be an attractive alternative to sugar. In addition to this, lab experiments have shown that stevia may stimulate the body's production of insulin, thus helping to reverse Type diabetes.

In the U.S. and Canada, stevia is not available in food products nor even on grocery store shelves. It is however available in health food stores and through certain websites as a dietary supplement; on that basis, herbal extracts containing stevia are legal to import, buy and sell. However, in these countries as well as the European Union, it cannot by law be sold as "food." There has been some concern on the part of health agencies in several countries about possible toxicity issues, but very little conclusive research has been done on this aspect of stevia. It has been recommended by at least one nationally-known herbalist, author Paul Pitchford, that one purchase only the green or brown variety of stevia extracts in order to receive full benefit. As with anything, it's a good idea to educate yourself about herbal extracts before using them for anything other than cooking or aromatherapy.