“Stevia: science, no fiction”, Stevia Symposium in Leuven (29-30 June 2010)

On day one (29 June 2010) in the first session (Culture and growth of Stevia), speakers were Yaroslav Shevchenko (Sprout culture of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni) and Florence Berglund (Developing a truly sustainable ingredient, which meets the 3 criteria of sustainability: social, environmental and economic benefits).

In the second session (Legal aspects) Ivo Roelants talked about “Stevia patents, what is it all about” and Christine Vinkx commented “Positive opinion EFSA: what is next?”.

Session 3 (Technical aspects) about the analysis of steviol glycosides consisted of “Stevia Analytical Testing: Why the Industry needs a Proficiency Program” (Frank Jaksch), “Second round-robin testing” (Jan Geuns) and “Determination of Steviol Glycosides in various Dairy Matrices” (Boudewijn Meesschaert).

Next speakers were Etienne Jooken (Ultra-High Pressure liquid Chromatography for the Analysis of Steviol Glycosides) and Tom Struyf (Development of an internal standard and validation of the methods).

Day two (20 June 2010), with session 4 (Use of steviol glycosides) started with Claudia Scholten (Methods to influence the taste and sweetness profile of Stevia) and Katja Obst (Sensory characterization of Stevia). Next speakers were Felix Verdegem (Development of Belgian chocolate) and Per Jeppesen (Isosteviol elevates plasma HDL –cholesterol  level –a potential new drug for the treatment of coronary heart disease),  .

In the afternoon session (Pharmacological effects of steviol glycosides and derivatives, already started by Per Jeppesen before noon) speakers were Minne Geeraert (Steviol glycosides and obesity), Marvin Edeas (Oxidative stress and antioxidants: Were is the target? Can Stevia modulate the oxidative stress induced by glucose?), Hasan Mohajeri (Cognitive health effects of steviol glycosides) and Jan Geuns (Radical scavenging activity of steviol glycosides). The climax for the very few was given by Jan Geuns at the ending. He just used a white board to show the synthesis of the ROS scavenging activity of steviol glycosides and steviol glucuronide.

Pictures of the event