Stevia, a perennial plant original from Paraguay, is today well known in the world for its sweetener properties as it contains steviosides that are between a hundred-fifty to three hundreds times as sweet as table sugar. It has been used for this purpose, and also medicinally for hundreds of years in certain regions of South America. The stevioside is contained in the green leaves of the plant . (Sahelian & Gates, 2000, p38). Some of the medicinal properties Stevia allege to