GROWTH PARTICULARITIES OF AMERICAN POKEWEED – PLANT WITH MULTIPURPOSE UTILIZATION

American pokeweed (Phytolacca americana L.) is a good ornamental plant due to its ability to grow rapidly, broad and tall vegetation, and attractive grape-like fruits. However, American pokeweed and some useful chemical constituents, which accumulate in different parts of this plant, until present, in our opinion, are not utilised sufficient effectively. The leaves and seeds of Phytolacca americana L. produce pokeweed antiviral protein with increased antiviral and antifungal activities. Natural dyes accumulated in fruits can be used in the food, cosmetic, pharmaceutical and textile industries. The purpose of this work was to study the growth particularities of pokeweed plants propagated by seeds, and to establish the content and antioxidant activity of main constituents (polyphenols and colorant substances) in ripe fruits. American pokeweed demonstrated the excellent adaptivity of seeds and seedlings under different condition of germination, transplantation and cultivation. In season of 2019, the vegetation cycle of Phytolacca americana L. annual plants continued maximal 210 days (from March to November). The biometrical indexes of stems, racemes, fruits and seeds corresponded to similar characters reported by other scientists. The aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts were obtained from ripe fresh fruits. The biggest amount of polyphenolic and colorant substances was found in aqueous extracts. The antioxidant activity of Phytolacca americana L. fruit extracts, evaluated in vitro by potentiometric procedure against the peroxyl free radicals, was in direct proportion to the content of polyphenols (r2=0.9563) and colorant substances (r2=0.9808). The colorant substances from American pokeweed fruits possessed the high antioxidant activity, IC50 was equal to 259.65±2.60mg/l.