Methods of preparing highly purified steviol glycosides, particularly steviolmonoside, steviolmonoside A, steviolbioside, steviolbioside A, steviolbioside B, rubusoside, stevioside, stevioside A (rebaudioside KA), stevioside B, stevioside C, rebaudioside E, rebaudioside E2, rebaudioside E3, and rebaudioside AM are described. The methods include utilizing enzyme preparations and recombinant microorganisms for converting various staring compositions to target steviol glycosides. The highly purified rebaudiosides are useful as non-caloric sweetener, flavor enhancer, sweetness enhancer, and foaming suppressor in edible and chewable compositions such as any beverages, confectioneries, bakery products, cookies, and chewing gums.

The present invention includes compounds having structural formula (I), wherein R1-R9 are as defined herein, or salts or solvates thereof. These compounds are useful as sweet flavor modifiers. The present invention also includes compositions comprising the present compounds and methods of enhancing the sweet taste of compositions. ##STR00001##

A method of screening for a stevia plant with high rebaudioside M content ratio, that includes detecting from a test stevia plant the presence and/or absence of at least one of (1) and (2), and at least one of (3) to (7): (1) homozygous for the allele wherein position 290 of SEQ ID NO: 1 is T; (2) homozygous for the allele wherein position 33 of SEQ ID NO: 2 is A; (3) homozygous for the allele wherein position 44 of SEQ ID NO: 3 is T; (4) homozygous for the allele wherein position 40 of SEQ ID NO: 4 is T; (5) homozygous for the allele wherein position 48 of SEQ ID NO: 5 is C; (6) homozygous for the allele wherein positions 55-72 of SEQ ID NO: 6 are deleted; (7) homozygous for the allele wherein position 50 of SEQ ID NO: 7 is A.

The present invention provides a process for preparation of highly purified mogrosides mixture from low purity mogrosides mixture. The process comprises providing a mixture of low purity mogrosides, dissolving the low purity mogrosides mixture in water or an aqueous alcohol solution to form an initial solution of mogrosides, passing the initial solution through a column system, wherein the column system comprises a plurality of columns, and each column is packed with a sorbent having different affinities to impurities and mogrosides so that one or more columns retains more mogrosides than other columns, washing the columns to remove impurities with an acidic aqueous solution, a basic aqueous solution, and an aqueous alcoholic solution successively, eluting the columns with an aqueous alcohol solution that contains higher alcohol content than the aqueous alcohol solution used in the washing step, wherein the eluate from the columns with high content of mogrosides are combined, and drying the combined eluate to obtain high purity mogrosides with the content of the total mogrosides are more than 70% (w/w). The present invention also provides a sweetener mixture and product comprising high purity mogrosides.

A Stevia extract made from leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant is described. The extract has desired levels of steviol glycosides and is useful in food, beverage, and other consumable products.

Rebaudioside M compositions with improved aqueous solubility and methods for preparing the same are provided herein. The rebaudioside M compositions include (i) disordered crystalline compositions comprising rebaudioside M and rebaudioside D, (ii) spray-dried compositions comprising rebaudioside M, rebaudioside D and steviol glycoside mixtures and/or rebaudioside B and/or NSF-02, (iii) spray-dried compositions comprising rebaudioside M, rebaudioside D and at least one surfactant, polymer, saponin, carbohydrate, polyol, preservative or a combination thereof. Sweetened compositions, such a beverages, containing the rebaudioside M compositions with improved water solubility are also provided herein.

The aspects presented herein provide flavour compositions. In particular, the aspects presented herein provide flavour compositions that a person may dispense into beverages, such as, for example, bottled beverages.

A stevia cultivar with super high Rebaudioside A content, designated 320032, is disclosed. Another embodiment relates to the plant parts of stevia cultivar 320032, to the plants of stevia 320032 and to methods for producing a stevia plant produced by crossing the cultivar 320032 with itself or another stevia variety, including methods using marker assisted breeding. Another embodiment further relates to hybrid stevia seeds and plants produced by crossing the cultivar 320032 with another stevia cultivar. Twelve highly polymorphic SNPs loci and the corresponding genomic sequences used to identify plant variety 320032-derived plant materials are also disclosed.

Provided herein include methods of making mogroside compounds, e.g., Compound 1, compositions (for example host cells) for making the mogroside compounds, and the mogroside compounds made by the methods disclosed herein, and compositions (for example, cell lysates) and recombinant cells comprising the mogroside compounds (e.g., Compound 1). Also provided herein are novel cucurbitadienol synthases and the use thereof.

Recombinant microorganisms, plants, and plant cells are disclosed that have been engineered to express novel recombinant genes encoding steviol biosynthetic enzymes and UDP-glycosyltransferases (UGTs). Such microorganisms, plants, or plant cells can produce steviol or steviol glycosides, e.g., rubusoside or Rebaudioside A, which can be used as natural sweeteners in food products and dietary supplements.