**4. Present status of use or incorporation of desired traits**

Him Stevia is a registered variety at CSIR- Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology which was produced through the crossing of two parents CSIR-IHBT-ST-2009-2 × CSIR-IHBT-ST-2009-4. This variety is characterized by large club-shaped, dark green leaves having serrated margins on the upper half and rugose leaf surface. It is rich in stevioside 5.87% and rebaudioside A 7.34% content. A mutant variety with accession number IHBT-ST-02 is produced through gamma irradiation method in which leaves are medium ovate with dark green color and serrate margin producing stevioside 7.02% and rebaudioside A 2.30% content.

A tetraploid stevia plant with accession number C-7-3-4 was formed through colchicine treatment which is having large ovate leaves with bluntly rounded leaf apex and is dark green in color with a serrulate margin. It is characterized by 8.40% stevioside and 4.33% rebaudioside content with a low Reb-A/stevioside ratio of 0.52. Colchicine treatment was used for the formation of polyploid plants having accession number C-8-3-4 with the same leaf characters as that of the tetraploid plant but differ in the percentage of stevioside (8.47%) and rebaudioside (2.19%) with lowest Reb-A/stevioside ratio of 0.26.
