Recently, the top international food safety and nutrition journal “Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety”(Q1, IF: 15.786) published online the latest research results of the vegetable storage and processing team of Professor Cunshan Zhou——“Natural and low-caloric rebaudioside A as a substitute for dietary sugars: A comprehensive review” (DOI: 10.1111/1541-4337.13084). Wang Yang, a 21-year Ph.D. from the School of Food and Biological Engineering at Jiangsu University, is the first author of this article, and Professor Cunshan Zhou is the only corresponding author of this article.
In recent years, the health problems caused by high sugar and high-calorie diets, such as diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, have become increasingly prominent, and show a trend of younger age. The development of traditional sweetener (sucrose) alternatives with high sweetness and low/no calories has become one of the current research hotspots. Although artificial sweeteners are the "main force" of the current sugar substitute industry, their safety has always been controversial. However, low-calorie steviol glycosides extracted from plant-based stevia leaves are known as "the world's third generation of natural sugar sources" because of their safety, stable properties, high sweetness and low cost. At present, China has become the world's largest producer and exporter of steviol glycosides.
Rebaudioside A is a kind of steviol glycoside, which belongs to tetracyclic diterpenoids (Figure 1). It accounts for about 4% of the dry weight of stevia leaves, and it is the second most abundant steviol glycoside in stevia leaves. Compared with other steviol glycosides, it has pure sweetness, less bitterness, and the highest sweetness (250-450 times that of sucrose). It does not participate in the energy metabolism process of the body after consumption and is stable, resistant to storage, and suitable for various traditional sweeteners. It is an ideal new low-calorie sweetener. In addition, rebaudioside A also has biological activities such as anti-diabetes, hypotension, anti-inflammation, anti-cancer, and anti-caries (Figure 2). Today, high-purity steviol glycoside A has been gradually used in various food and beverage industries (Figure 3), and the domestic rebaudioside A market will be even broader in the future. This article provides a comprehensive overview of rebaudioside A (e.g., physicochemical and biological properties, metabolic kinetics, safety, biosynthetic pathways) as an alternative to traditional high-calorie sweeteners and synthetic sweeteners for reducing dietary sugar intake amount of potential. The latest extraction and purification techniques of Rebaudioside A and the latest applications in the food industry are compared. In addition, the problems existing in the current steviol glycoside industry (i low extraction efficiency and outdated purification methods; ii low output cannot meet market demand; iii single steviol glycoside products and taste) are also given, and corresponding solutions are given (i New extraction technology combined with membrane separation technology; ii enzymatic or biotransformation method to obtain steviol glycosides; iii development of new steviol glycosides or compounding other sweeteners to achieve taste optimization). The above work has been supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (3207274) Provincial Science and Technology Major Project (BE20207769, CX (21) 2026, CX (20) 3168) and other projects.
Figure 1. Summary of information about Stevia rebaudiana, steviol glycosides and their basic structure (Steviol)
Figure 2. Multiple physiological functions and health benefits of Rebaudioside A
Figure 3. Some applications of rebaudioside A in the food industry
Cunshan Zhou, Ph.D., professor, doctoral supervisor, vice president of the School of Food and Bioengineering of Jiangsu University, and vice president of Wenxin Academy, engaged in the research of vegetable physical processing and green process. Selected into the Provincial New Century 151 Talent Project, 333 High-level Talents, Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Leaders, Six Talents Peak High-level Talents, School Outstanding Young Academic Leaders, Nominated for the top 2% of the world's top scientists, currently serving as the Vegetable Dehydration Processing Technology of the Ministry of Agriculture Deputy Director of Basic Base, Deputy Director of Prefabricated Vegetables Professional Committee of Jiangsu Cold Chain Society, Director of Snack Food Processing Technology Branch and Fruit and Vegetable Processing Technology Branch of China Food Science and Technology Society, Member of Machinery Industry Food Machinery Standardization Committee, Consulting Expert of CPPCC. Presided over more than 20 national, provincial and ministerial projects such as national key research and development projects, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the National High-tech Research and Development Plan, published more than 260 academic papers, searched more than 200 SCI papers and obtained 21 authorized patents. Standard 11 items. As the main contributor, he has won 17 provincial and ministerial awards and individual honors, including the second prize of the Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Award, the first prize of the China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Award, and the special prize of the National Chamber of Commerce Science and Technology Progress Award.
（School of Food and Biological Engineering）
