US Patent Issued to Suntory Holdings on Aug. 19 for "Stevia plant having less ability to form pollens" (Japanese Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Aug. 20 -- United States Patent no. 12,391,953, issued on Aug. 19, was assigned to Suntory Holdings Ltd. (Osaka, Japan).

"Stevia plant having less ability to form pollens" was invented by Tadayoshi Hirai (Kyoto, Japan), Kazunari Iwaki (Kanagawa, Japan) and Kentaro Ochiai (Kyoto, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The present invention provides a Stevia plant having a low ability to form pollens as compared with the wild type Stevia species. The present invention also provides a method of producing such a Stevia plant having a low ability to form pollens, and an extract or a steviol glycoside purified product obtainable from such a plant."

The patent was filed on April 7, 2...