So far the Food and Drug Administration has banned it's use as a food additive, but it can be sold as a dietary supplement. I did a search on dangers of stevia, and checked a lot of sites. I didn't find anything proving any dangers. In fact there were more references to the dangers of aspartame, saccharine, refined sugar cane, etc. And here's an interesting tidbit I stumbled across in my search... "As for the future of Stevia, Coca Cola plans to market stevia under the trade name of Rebiana and is currently patent-pending. This calorie-free food and beverage sweetener is also being marketed under the Cargill corporation, a food and agricultural provider. Likewise, both these companies hope that Rebiana will gain FDA approval as a food additive, and be widely marketed in the United States by 2009."

Had stevia inside a sunny windowsill though it wasn't too happy in winter. I bought it as a 4" pot at the end of summer & transplanted into a larger pot. It grew woody at the base and resprouted from the sides. When flowers appeared I cut it back. After 2 years it died. A plant I'd suggest is Sweet Cicely, Myrrhis odorata grows outside with minimal care and reseeded last year, so now we have 2 seedlings along with our 2 & 1 yr old plants. We like it in rhubarb and other dishes reducing the sugar. I've tinkered with recipes a bit & seem to prefer 2 tablespoons minced herb to replace 1/2 cup of sugar. Sometimes I've used too much of the herb and we didn't like it as well. With 8 cups rhubarb we added 1 cup sweet cicely for a crisp. Edible, but rather green and stems were a bit woody. Now we just use the ferny leaves.

Just cut it off cleanly and plant it. I've never had much luck with stevia cuttings, but in theory it should strike roots. The place where the cut is will heal itself. Thing is, while the roots are healthy, the plant should recover. Even if the cutting dies, those roots won't. So - remove your finger from the panic button and let the plant get on with its own recovery program - but perform that amputation first, then leave the plant to its own devices.

Remember that stevia probably won't live through a winter outside where you are - I grow mine in pots here in Virginia so that I can bring them in for winter. I don't really "prune" the plants, rather I harvest. In the beginning, I cut them back to no more than about 3-inches, then let the branches grow out to 6 to 10-inches, then cut them off just after the first leaves. I'll include a sprig or two in pots of herbal teas I make during the summer months, but I also dry a lot to include in my herbal tea blends that I drink when fresh herbs are not available. I suppose you could dry it and pulverize it down to a fine powder to sprinkle or use in other ways, but I haven't done that. I probably would never use a chemical fungicide on any of my herbs - this is a plant where I will be seeking to leach out the essence of the leaves - why would I want to poison myself? My stevia does tend to pick up scale insects, and it seems ants like farming the insects, which could also include aphids, etc. Immediately after cutting the entire plant down to a little clump, I will often spray with neem oil when scale insects are present, which helps with any fungus problems as well. Since the entire plants get cut back three or four times a summer, that is the extent of my maintenance. It is really important to eliminate all the scale or insect issues you have before bringing them in for the winter, as the biggest source of plant loss I've had is the expansion of scale.