Effect of green and UVA spectra, and pre-harvest treatments on biomass and metabolite yields of indoor cultivated stevia rebaudiana.

Stevia rebaudiana is a high-value crop due to the strong commercial demand for its metabolites (steviol glycosides, SG) as an organic low-caloric sweetener with up to 300 times the sweetness of conventional sugar. Two experiments were conducted in this study. In the first experiment, treatments with varying green (GR1 & GR2), UVA (UV1 & UV2) and treatments that had both (UVGR1, UVGR2) were used.

Beyond the PAR spectra: impact of light quality on the germination, flowering, and metabolite content of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni).

Background: Stevia rebaudiana is a high value crop due to the strong commercial demand for its metabolites (steviol glycosides) but has limited geographical cultivation range. In non-native environments with different daylength and light quality, Stevia has low germination rates and early flowering resulting in lower biomass and poor yield of the desired metabolites. In this study, artificial lighting with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was used to determine if different light quality within and outside of the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) range can be used to improve germination rates and yields for production of steviol glycosides for the herbal supplement and food industry.