Agenda UV

Stevia: The Sweet Panacea?

OPENING:

Wednesday 16 November, at 11:00 a.m.

Assembly Hall of the Faculty of Nursing and Podiatry

With the participation of:

Ester Alba, Vice-Principal for Culture and Society

Antoni Merelles, Dean of the Faculty of Nursing and Podiatry

Jaime Güemes, Director of the UV Botanical Garden

Àlvar Martínez-Vidal, curator of the exhibition and member of the López Piñero Inter-University Institute, UV

During the opening, the documentary “Stevia: The Sweet Panacea?” will be screened. By Empar Pons Barrachina, UV Audiovisual Workshop

Natural sweeteners have been very important throughout the history of food. In addition to giving a sweet taste to many foods, they have been used for food preservation, such as jams, and for the production of medicines. They have also shaped a very dynamic and influential sector in the world of business and food technology.

Now that obesity is affecting an increasingly younger population and has become a risk factor for illness, a “zero-calorie” sweetener such as stevia is appearing on the market as a revolutionary plant. Its name was given by the Valencian botanist Antoni Josep Cavanilles, who paid tribute to the Morella doctor Pere Jaume Esteve, holder of the Chair of Herbs at the General Study of València in the middle of the sixteenth century.