Stevia rebaudiana

Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni that belongs to Asteraceae family is a perennial herb/shrub grown for commercial purpose worldwide for the natural sweetener steviol. The leaf of plant Stevia is exploited largely for extraction of sweetener and as the flavor enhancer in the food and beverage industry. Widely popular natural sweetener steviol obtained from leaves of Stevia is readily available in market around the globe. The amassed popularity of this sweetener is associated with its nontoxicity and physiologically harmless attributes in addition to its biological activities that include antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antifungal actions. However, despite its medicinal potential, there are several lacunae that hinder its commercial cultivation, e.g., availability of high-quality planting material. The other limiting factors involve self-incompatibility and low rate of seed germination that restricts the exploitation of complete potential of traditional breeding approaches and crop improvement programs. The biotechnological approaches are promising; however, both the traditional and biotechnological tools should be in sync to generate the plants that have desired agronomic traits such as disease resistance, improved biomass, and glycoside content. This chapter herein describes the medicinal usage and updated knowledge of traditional and biotechnological approaches toward the development of Stevia that are crucial for developing the cultivars with desirable agronomic traits.