Abstract

Photostability of rebaudioside A, a sweet constituent of Stevia rebaudiana was studied under fluorescent light exposure at 25^o C in mock beverages at pH 3.8 using International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) technical requirements covering the stability testing of new drug substances and products. Experimental results indicated that rebaudioside A did not undergo any major decomposition with fluorescent light exposure for 2 weeks. Identification of the degradation products furnished two minor compounds which were identified as 13-[(2-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl]- b-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy]-17-hydroxy-ent-kaur-15-en-19-oic acid b-D-glucopyranosyl ester and 13-[(2-O-?-D-glucopyranosyl-3-O-?-D-glucopyranosyl-?-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy]-16?-hydroxy ent-kauran-19-oic acid b-D-glucopyranosyl ester on the basis of extensive spectroscopic data and chemical studies. Also, the mass balance for rebaudioside A was calculated against their control samples which were found 99.1%, suggesting any appreciable amount of undetected degradation products were formed under the conditions of the study.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.