Exploring Plant Tissue Culture and Steviol Glycosides Production in Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni: A Review

Stevia rebaudiana (Bert.) Bertoni, commonly called “sweet leaf” is a medicinally and industrially important plant known to be rich in zero-calorie natural sweetening compound(s) as “steviol glycosides”. However, due its poor seed germination slow vegetative propagation, it has become rather difficult meet the increasing global demand for Stevia-based products. Different biotechnological approaches have been developed over past few decades overcome these limitations allow mass propagation of plant. Several protocols vitro organogenesis, callogenesis, cell suspension cultures during years. Apart from this, attempts also made improve production steviol glycosides through nutrient manipulation, use elicitors, hairy root cultures, genetic transformation, metabolic pathway engineering. Therefore, this review provides an up-to-date report on applications various tools enhanced glycoside production, along with detailed bibliometrics analysis. This highlights research gaps future considerations that could fruitful scientific community delve deeper into unexplored aspects architecture functionality