JP
Stevia is the generic name for the Stevia plant itself and also for sweeteners manufactured from the plant. In 1971, Morita Kagaku Kogyo launched Stevia sweeteners for the Japanese market thus being the world’s first commercial producer and the pioneer of the industry.
The Stevia sweeteners currently sold in the global market are commercialized based on the “high Rebaudioside A variety” Stevia plant which Morita Kagaku Kogyo originally discovered and developed for the first time in the world.
Stevia is a member of the Asteraceae family and originates from the border area shared by Brazil and Paraguay. Stevia has a long history of use in tea and other foods in the region. In 1889, the Stevia plant was discovered and studied extensively by a Swiss scientist, Dr. Moises S. Bertoni and named as “Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni”.
Our Stevia sweeteners are produced by extracting Stevia leaves. The process starts by steeping the harvested leaves in water in order to release steviol glycosides (sweet components) which subsequently go through a number of additional steps of refinement. The final product is a white powder in which the taste profile basically depends on the content of different steviol glycosides. We produce the top-quality products with superior taste by utilizing our know-how as the pioneer of Stevia.
The leaves of Stevia contain a number of sweet components known as steviol glycosides (generic name) which have differing sweetness intensities ranging from 50 to 600 times that of sugar. Morita is the pioneer of developing Stevia plant varieties and through the development of Morita varieties we have found many steviol glycosides such as Rebaudioside A (Reb A), which is widely used as a main component of stevia sweeteners around the world today, and Rebaudioside M (Reb M), a component for next generation stevia sweeteners. We have obtained material patents on new steviol glycosides including Rebaudioside M and patents on great tasting stevia sweeteners globally.
