Candy leaf has Potential beyond its Natural Sweetening properties

Candy Leaf (Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) Bertoni) a plant recognized for its natural non-caloric sweetening characteristics, also has therapeutic properties for diseases like endocrine, metabolic, immune, and cardiovascular diseases, because of its effect on cellular signalling systems according to a new study.

Assam exports Stevia worldwide. The North Eastern Council (Government of India) also highlighted stevia cultivation’s potential to help the northeast Indian economy due to high demand and use.

At the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) in Guwahati, an autonomous institute of Department of Science and Technology, a team of researchers Dr. Asis Bala, Associate. Professor, Prof. Ashis K. Mukherjee, Director, and Ms. Piyali Devroy, Research Scholar did pioneering research on Stevia’s medicinal properties, effects on cellular signalling mechanisms to prove the Assam’s Stevia’s therapeutic qualities.

Their multimodal strategy integrated network pharmacology with in vitro and in vivo techniques, showing that the plant used phosphorylation of Protein Kinase C (PKC) to inhibit a crucial cellular signalling route.

PKC is connected to inflammatory, autoimmune, endocrine, and cardiovascular illnesses. Stevia suppresses PKC phosphorylation, which alters downstream pathways that cause inflammation, a significant cause of endocrine metabolic and cardiovascular issues.

The study shows Stevia’s promise in this field for the first time. The study also found that active stevia molecules strongly interact with AMPK, highlighting the need for additional research.

This work published in the journal “Food Bioscience” revealed Stevia’s potential and identified new targets for immunological endocrine and cardiovascular problems. It could have therapeutic effect on diabetes, type 1, type 2, autoimmune diabetes, pre-diabetes, chronic inflammation related auto immune disease – rheumatoid arthritis; chronic kidney diseases and cardiovascular diseases like hypertension; vasculopathy and so on.

The study illuminates an undiscovered facet of Stevia, underlining the necessity of creative tactics and scientific data to support traditional therapeutic practices.

Figure: The scientific method used by the research team: The network pharmacology to identify the target and then performed molecular docking for target validation. After that, conducted in vitro and in vivo studies of HPTLC validated Stevia that suggested the effectiveness of Stevia rebaudiana in inhibiting Protein Kinase C phosphorylation.