The food industry has currently shown great interest in alternative sweeteners to sugars
with the aim of producing healthier products. In light of this, steviol glycosides are natural
low-caloric sweeteners present in Stevia rebaudiana, which have additionally been described as
bioactive components with potential therapeutic properties. In this work, a green method for the
extraction of steviol glycosides from stevia leaves was optimized by applying a factorial screening
design of five variables (time, temperature, agitation, grinding, and sample–solvent ratio) and the
subsequent response surface design of Box-Behnken. The optimized extraction method allows for the
recovery of stevia sweeteners in a simple and e cient manner by using tap water as the extractant,
without the application of an auxiliary energy source to reduce costs, thus representing an interesting
strategy for their industrial-scale production.