stevia

noun stevias

1. Any of the sweet herbs of genus Stevia, native to tropical and subtropical regions of South America and western North America. A naturally sweet herb called stevia is gaining in popularity as a sugar substitute, especially in beverages. Food additives must provide evidence of their safety and effectiveness before receiving FDA approval, and stevia lacks this approval for use as a sweetener because so little is known about i

   Similar: sweetleaf, candy leaf, sugar leaf, sweet honey leaf, sweet herb of Paraguay

2. A sweetener, many times sweeter than an equal amount of sugar, extracted from Stevia rebaudiana, that can be substituted for sugar for some purposes. Stevia is a natural, non-fattening sweetener that is 30 to 100 times sweeter than sugar and without any of the aftertaste that is common in many sugar substitutes.