GROWTH PARTICULARITIES OF AMERICAN POKEWEED – PLANT WITH MULTIPURPOSE UTILIZATION

Abstract

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.