Extraction Unit Design of a Natural Sweetener from Stevia

Stevia or sweet plant is a native plant in the continent of America. It was studied by a Spanish physician for the first time in 1888. The people of brazil and Paraguay were used it as a sweetener and as a medicine for high blood pressure, gastro burn, uric acid control, and fatness since centuries ago. At present many countries such as Japan have marketed stevia extract as a replacement for unnatural sweeteners such as saccharine, aspartame and cyclamate to avoid their hazardous effects. The sweetening compounds (glycosides) are stevioside, rebaudioside A, etc. in this project different methods of stevia glycoside production were investigated such as solvent and super critical fluid extractions, nano, ultra and membrane filtrations. Finally a suitable schedule was designed to produce stevia sweetener.