Food and pharmacological value in onion leaves is mainly represented by ascorbic acid, chlorophylls and secondary metabolites: carotenoids, phenolic compounds. At the same time, their quantity depends on the conditions of cultivation and treatment with biostimulants. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse on sod-podzolic soil in the Moscow region under conditions of natural insolation at a temperature of 20 ... 25 ° C in March using varieties of VNIISSOK selection – Chernyj princ and Zolotnichok. The effect of Albit and Amir biostimulants on the content of antioxidants and photosynthetic pigments in the leaves of onion was studied. The work shows the promise of using growth-stimulating plant and bacterial preparations for foliar treatment of onion leaves, which allow increasing the yield of leaves and the content of antioxidants. In the leaves of the Chernyj princ variety, an increase in the content of ascorbic acid by 30% was observed when treated with biostimulant Amir, as well as an increase in leaf weight by 8% when treated with Amir and by 14% when treated with biostimulant Albit. Foliar treatment of onion leaves with biostimulants Albit and Amir resulted in an increase in the amount of ethanol-soluble antioxidants.

Relevance. The presence of valuable biologically active substances, carbohydrates, organic acids and others in the eggplant fruits makes the culture one of the vegetables with the highest antioxidant activity. The VIR collection of eggplant includes 830 accessions from 70 countries of the world. The study of new acquisitions in the VIR collection presupposes a comprehensive assessment of the received material according to morphological, biological and economically valuable characteristics. The main objective of the study was to assess the variability of the biochemical parameters of egg-plant fruits in technical ripeness; as well as determination of the best accessions by the chemical composition of fruits and the content of biologically active substances.Materials and methods. The study of 19 accessions of eggplant accessions was carried out in 2020 in a winter greenhouse in Pushkin and Pavlovsk Laboratories of VIR (St. Petersburg). The morphological description of the accessions and the assessment for biological and economically valuable traits were carried out in accordance with the methodological guidelines and the VIR classifier. Biochemical analysis was carried out in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of VIR in the phase of technical ripeness of fruits in terms of: dry matter content, sugars, total acidity, ascorbic acid, pigments and anthocyanins.Results. As a result of this study, the amplitude of variability in the content of dry matter (6.44- 8.68%), sugars (1.78-3.72%), ascorbic acid (5.92-21.08 mg/100 g), titrated acidity (0.10-0.31%), chlorophylls (0.52-15.13 mg/100 g), carotenoids (1.19-6.99 mg/100 g), β-carotene (0.11-0.52 mg/100 g) and anthocyanins (12.94-1031.40 mg/100 g) in eggplant fruits. Accessions with a high content of biologically active substances in fruits in technical ripeness were identified: Russian hybrids Bourgeois F1, Azhur F1; local accessions from Armenia: k-3156, k-3159, k-3161.

Amaranth leaves can be used in salads, soups, sauces enriching them with biologically active substances (in particular, ascorbic acid and phenolic compounds), as well as giving them an original taste and color. Plants were grown on the experimental field of VNIISSOK in the Moscow region. The experiment was laid on sod-podzolic soil. For the period of 2013-2016 years, biochemical parameters were investigated: total content of water-soluble antioxidants, ascorbic acid content, dry matter content, amarantine content in three amaranth varieties (Valentina, Don Pedro and Fakel) and two green leaf varieties (Pamyati Kovasa and Eku 17020) of FSBSI FSVC (formerly VNIISSOK) and INIAP selection and a correlation analysis was performed, which showed a relationship between the relative concentration of amarantine in the leaves and other biochemical parameters at different stages of plant development. The maximum accumulators of antioxidants according to the TAC parameter were the Valentina and Don Pedro varieties - up to 2.9 mg gallic acid equivalents/g. The situation was similar in terms of the content of the reduced form of ascorbic acid. So also the Valentina and Don Pedro varieties were leading with values of about 140 mg%. A positive correlation between the content of ascorbic acid and the sum of hydrophilic antioxidants was confirmed. Pamyati Kovasa and Eku 17020 varieties can be recommended as a source of green mass of leaves with a high content of ascorbic acid, red colored varieties Don Pedro, Valentina, Fakel – for obtaining red dye enriched with antioxidants.

At present there is numerous evidence of the antioxidant positive role in the defensive reaction that is capable to protect not only plants, but also humans against oxidative stress. Plant pigments such as natural dyes from leaves, flowers and fruits are known to have high antioxidant activity. Amaranth species A. tricolor L. cultivar ‘Early Splendor’ is a convenient model for the comparative studying of the formation processes of differently colored pigment composition in leaf tissues that differs in the ability to photosynthesize. Leaves of amaranth cultivar ‘Valentina’ were as a standard. The aim of the experiment was a comparative studying of the pigments content: amaranthine, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids in the cauline leaves of amaranth cultivars ‘Valentina’ and ‘Early Splendor’, as well as in the red and green areas of the leaves. Analysis of the aqueous extract of red Early Splendor amaranth apical leaves showed the presence of betacyanin pigment - amaranthine, in the absorption spectrum in which peak was seen in the green region at 540 nm. In addition to the antioxidant amaranthine there are  also antioxidants which might be phenolic glycosides, and ascorbic acid in the extract, the total content of which is almost twice as small as in the leaves of amaranth cauline of this cultivar. Yellow fraction was found in the ethanolic extract of red leaves. Its absorption spectrum had peaks in the blue region at 445 nm and 472 nm and a shoulder at 422 nm that indicated the presence of betaxanthin, betalamic acid or carotenoids. Water-soluble antioxidants - amaranthine and ascorbic acid were found in  auline leaves of studied species. Their content in the leaves of Valentina cultivar was higher than in the leaves of cultivar ‘Early Splendor’, and the maximum level of photosynthetic pigments was found in ‘Early Splendor’ leaves. The obtained results showed that the amaranth is a promising source of pigments with the antioxidant  activity that can be used for production of food dyes.