Stevia : A True Glycoside Used as a Sweetener and Not Affecting Behavior

Abstract

Using ants as models, the glycoside rebaudioside A, a sweetener extracted from the plant Stevia rebaudiana and commercialized under the name 'stevia', was shown to have no effect on their food consumption, locomotion, precision of reaction, response to pheromones, brood caring, cognition, visual and olfactory conditioning and memory, although this sweetener slightly increased the ants audacity. However, when having the choice between stevia and saccharose, the ants somewhat preferred the latter. Stevia is thus a safe sweetener which does not impact general health, behavior and cognition, but it is generally perceived less pleasant than saccharose.

Physiological Impact of Statins Experimentally Revealed on Ants

“…Studying the effect of age, activity and diet on the learning ability of M. ruginodis led us to suppose that they could be used as models 5,15 . This was confirmed when studying the effects of several alkaloids, of nicotine, of morphine and quinine, buprenorphine and methadone, of fluoxetine, of anafranil and efexor, 3 of paroxetine, 4 of carbamazepine, 5 of alprazolam, and of sweeteners as well as food complements 16,17 on Myrmica species. Each time, we found effects like those observed on humans and brought precise information on these effects.…”

“…Most of the material and methods here used are similar to those previously used for examining the adverse effects of several products consumed by humans using ants as material 4,5,16,17 . Having already detailed them, we here summarize these protocols.…”

“…The methodology set up 30 years ago was once more used as in several previous works 4,5,16,17 . Ten ant's poison glands were isolated in 500 µl hexane and 50 µl of the solution was deposited on a pencil drawn circle (R = 5 cm) divided into 10 angular degrees arcs.…”

“…As previously 4,5,16,17 , a cylindrical tower made of white paper was deposited in the ants' tray, and the ants present on this apparatus were counted 12 times in 12 min ( Figure 2D, 3D). The mean and extremes of the obtained values were established ( Table 2).…”

“…It is the reason why we assessed the ants' locomotion on a rough substrate: if they perceived correctly the uncomfortable character of the substrate, they will walk with difficulties, slowly, sinuously; if their tactile perception is impacted, they will walk more confidently. As previously 4,5,16,17 , for each colony, 12 ants were deposited in an apparatus provided with rough emery n° 280 paper. The linear and the angular speed of 12 ants of each colony (n = 24; Table 2) walking on this rough substrate were quantified.…”