Stevia is a sweet sugar substitute extracted from the leaves of the plant species Stevia rebaudiana native to Paraguay and Brazil.
The active compounds are steviol glycosides (mainly stevioside and rebaudioside), which have about 200 to 300 times the sweetness of sugar, are heat-stable, pH-stable, and not fermentable. The human body does not metabolize the glycosides in stevia, so it contains zero calories as a non-nutritive sweetener. Stevia is used in sugar- and calorie-reduced food and beverage products as an alternative for variants with sugar.