Study on comparison of the sweetness on Stevia rebaudiana with others sweeteners

The aim of this study was to compare Stevia rebaudiana raw plants and powder form with other sweetener chosen which were table sugar, brown sugar and coconut palm sugar in level of sweetness on respondents, test on Benedict's reagent and sugar content. The objective of this study to compare the level of sweetness in Stevia rebaudiana and selected sweetener in local market. The methods used were taste survey, Benedict's test and refractometer tools. Besides that, functional groups of stevia extract with its powder form, along with other sweeteners which were table sugar, brown sugar and coconut palm sugar also were identified in this study through FTIR machine. The functional group present such as primary aliphatic alcohols in table sugar, aliphatic primary amines in brown sugar, primary aliphatic alcohols and aliphatic primary amines in coconut palm sugar. Meanwhile for stevia powder, functional group found was primary aliphatic alcohols and chlorinated linear alkanes and for stevia extract was aliphatic primary amides. Extraction of stevia was done through Soxhlet extraction method. In addition, test of samples on Benedict's reagent gave variety range of colour that match the indicator. Taste survey also gave a result of respondents choosing stevia powder used in tea as the sweetest out of other sweeteners chosen.