Bigger and Better Stevia plants

Picture: Zacks.com

S&W Seed (SANW) has been working with Dr. Clinton Shock for a number of years. Dr Shock, whilst in the Peace Corp. in Paraguay, developed an interest in stevia and collected many samples of stevia plants and seeds from remote villages. Many of these are atypical examples of wild stevia, and they have been made available to S&W Seed. Some of these samples have been crossed with each other and seeds grown and tested for glycoside types and concentrations. In the photo below Dr. Shock is standing behind some of the plants that are substantially bigger than the plants sourced from China (as seen in the background) The monster plants are at least waist high whereas the others are knee high.

These plants have substantially more leaf mass and the leaves contain higher concentrations of Reb. B and Reb. C but, at this time, lower concentrations of Reb. A. Further crossing and selective breeding could lead to plants with higher Reb. A concentrations whilst maintaining the high plant mass.

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Source: Zacks