Abstract: The research investigates the extraction of Steviol Glycosides (SG), a natural, low alorie sweetener, from the stevia rebaudiana plant using hot water. The study aims to address the gap in literature regarding the comparative effi-ciency of the extraction methods and the physio-chemical and organoleptic properties of the produced steviol glyco-sides. The methodology involves varying the solute (stevia leaves) to solvent (water) ratio, temperature and the dura-tion of extraction process. The impact of these variables on the yield of SG was evaluated, providing a comparative analysis of the efficiency of water in the extraction process. Results indicate that the choice of solvent and its ratio to the solute significantly influence the yields of SG. The highest and optimized yield of 39% was obtained at run 12 at reaction temperature of 90ºC, solute to solvent ratio 1:25 and reaction time of 120 min. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) results shows that all variables: solvent-solute ratio, temperature and time are highly significant being less than 0.05. The equation generated indicates that all the variables have positive influence on Steviol glycoside yield. Proximate analysis was carried out on the extract and the concentrate and the findings provides significant insight for production of homemade stevia concentrate.

Keywords: Stevia rebaudiana, Proximate Analysis, Sweeteners, Organoleptic, Steviol glycosides, Response Surface Methodology, ANOVA

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2025.12201