Effect of cutting frequency on chemical composition in Stevia rebaudiana evaluated by NMR metabolomics

High production costs in industrialized Countries is pushing many little farms out of market, especially little family run farms live on subsidies and they seek added value for their produce in quality foods and new crops customers are available to pay more than common industrial foods. Contemporarily, some dietetic problems encourage the search for new and natural sweeteners, including Stevia rebaudiana, a new possible crop in some areas of Italy with hot summers and irrigation. Too few research has been done on the convenience of introducing this crop in Italy and nothing is known about the effects of management on sugarine contents in Italian climates and soils. Our trial has investigated the sugarine content in two groups of Stevia plants cut every 30 or 45 days. Consequently, this crop with a frequent cut is suggested for the small farms that want to invest in this new crop. Stevia rebaudiana has now a very high commercial value in Italy (about 60-70 times more than sugar beet or sugar cane sugars) and can become a convenient crop especially for small farms located in areas with warm and rainy summers or with irrigation, that base their survival on product diversification and quality more than on mere quantity. Moreover, the many small farms with complex agro-silvo-pastoral systems and link to tourism services can sell this straight to their customers getting an interesting added value as typical and maybe organic crop.