Stevia powder is an extract of the sweet tasting compounds that make the South American herb, Stevia rebaudiana, an incredibly delicious sugar substitute. Stevia has been a traditional sweetener and medicine of the Paraguayan Guarani Natives, who appropriately named the plant sweet leaf (sometimes written as sweetleaf or translated as honey leaf). Herbal Select Stevia Powder is a purified isolate extracted without the use of chemical solvents. The method involves removing the green chlorophyll pigment and the slightly bitter constituents of the stevia leaves to yield a white, no calorie crystalline powder of purely natural stevia sweeteners (called steviol glycosides). Steviol glycosides taste up to 500 times sweeter than the equivalent amount of sucrose but without the side effects of refined sugar.