The sweet leaf, also known as the honey herb, is nowadays being used as an alternative for sugar. It is also used to treat a gamut of problems from diabetes obesity, hypertension, physical fatigue, and heart burn to even dental decay as the leaves are endowed with significant medicinal properties. A native of Paraguay and named after the Spanish botanist P. J. Esteve, the plant has been used as a natural sweetener for centuries in South America, especially by the Guarani Indians in Paraguay. In Japan, Stevia was approved as a sweetening agent in 1970 and constitutes about 40 percent of the sweetening market. Currently, Japan consumes more Stevia than any other country. China is the world’s largest exporter of the Stevia extract, Stevioside.
In India the cultivation of Stevia in various parts of the country is being promoted by the Karnataka Agriculture University during the last few years. Also the Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology is making efforts to create awareness about the usefulness of Stevia among the people in the area.
Stevia belongs to the family Asteraceae (botanical name Stevia rebaudiana), and is a sub-tropical frost sensitive perennial herb that grows up to about 2 feet in height. It grows on most soils, but prefers a sandy loam or loam that is high in organic matter. Stevia responds favourably to fertilizers with lower nitrogen content and most organic fertilizers work well, since they release nitrogen slowly. The plants may be kept indoors in winter with a fluorescent light left on for 14-16 hours per day, in areas that are prone to frost. Cuttings from wintered plants provide fresh plants for spring although seeds may also be used to grow the plant. Since germination rates are poor and seedlings are very slow to establish, it is best grown as an annual or perennial transplanted crop. Stevia prefers partial shade in climates with considerable summer sunshine. Long spring and summer days favour leaf growth while short days trigger blossoming.
Active Constituents and Biosynthesis
One of the major chemical constituent called Stevioside is found in Stevia leaf and attributes to the sweetening of the leaf. The leaf also contains rebaudioside A. In addition to the sweet diterpenoid glycosides, several other diterpenes have been isolated from Stevia. Since these compounds may be part of the waste stream produced during Stevia processing, their availability in large quantities could make them valuable co-products. Recent pharmalogical test on Stevia reveals that Stevioside and rebaudioside A found in the leaf may be successfully used to stabilize carbonated beverages as they are both heat and pH stable. Rebaudioside A is the least astringent, the least bitter, in relation to other high potency sweeteners such as aspartame. In aspartame the bitterness tends to increase with higher concentrations.
Stevia Leaf — a Natural Sweetner
Stevia leaf is about 300 times sweeter than sugar in its natural state and much more when processed. Unlike many chemical sweeteners, Stevia’s flavour is stable when heated. Like any other natural sweeteners as honey and maple syrup, Stevia has its own special flavour and does not taste exactly like sugar. However despite all its sweetness, there is a bitter aftertaste when the leaf, extract or Stevioside powder is placed in the mouth.
Action and Use
The Stevia leaf works as a wonderful sugar substitute and used to sweeten jams, dried sea food, gum and ice cream. It is safe for diabetics and hypoglycemics and has neither calories nor carbohydrates, making it suitable for health conscious people (it has only 1/300th amount of calories contained in sugar). Its medicinal uses include regulating blood sugar, preventing hypertension and may be used to treat of skin disorders.
A study conducted at the Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark reports that Stevioside enhances insulin secretion from pancreas in presence of glucose via a direct action on pancreatic beta cells. No wonder it is considered as a great alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners for those who have diabetes.
Moreover it actually inhibits dental decay as opposed to sugar, which contributes to it. Less known, but no less remarkable, is the ability of water-based Stevia concentrate to help heal numerous skin problems, including acne, seborrhea, dermatitis and eczema. The application of Stevia leaf paste to cuts and wounds brings rapid healing without scarring. Pharmacological research also reveals its use to heal psoriasis, burns and lip sores.
With the worldwide demand growing day by day Stevia represents a new opportunity for researchers and farmers alike. Since a ready market exists for Stevia efforts need to be upgraded to promote the cultivation of the plant in different parts of India.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.