Conventional extraction techniques

When was the first time Stevia’s sweetening principles were isolated and used as sweeteners? There is no precise date to mark the beginning of the use of Stevia rebaudiana as a sweetener. There are reports that before colonization, the Tupi-Guarani Indians who inhabited the South American region, more precisely Paraguay and southern Brazil, already used it to sweeten beverages and medicines for their consumption. The Paraguayan chemist Ovidio Rebaudi published in the Argentine Journal of Pharmaceutical Chemistry (1990), the first scientific article about the process of obtaining the sweetening principles from Stevia plants, arousing the interest of European countries such as England, France, and Germany.