Lupak O. Ecological and biochemical principles of the usage of biostimulants during cultivation of the medicinal plants in the Western Ukraine

The thesis researches the influence of plant growth biostimulants «Vermymag», «Vermyiodis» and «Vermystym» and also agroecological conditions during cultivating the plants Calendula officinalis L. and Matricaria recutita L. The study clarifies the changes of the morphometric indices and yielding capacity of plants depending on the influence of biostimulants and ecological factors – the agrochemical composition of soil of Western Forest-Steppe zone and the Precarpathian region and the weather conditions during cultivating of plants. The thesis considers the performance of the analysis of the content of photosynthetic pigments, activity of the enzymes of antioxidant system, the level of oxidative processes of plants. The study has determined the content of bioactive substances in the inflorescences of plants. The processes of plant growth and development activate under the influence of biostimulants and it causes the increase of their yielding capacity. Аpplying biostimulants «Vermymag» and «Vermyiodis» have caused the increase of sum of chlorophylls in the investigated plants. The plants C. officinalis and M. recutita, grown in the conditions of Western Forest-Steppe zone possess authentically higher (р˂0.05) content of sum of chlorophylls compared to the plants cultivated in the conditions of the Precarpathian region that is caused by higher content of nutriments in the soil. Between the content of chlorophylls and yielding capacity is the linear dependence. C. officinalis and M. recutita plants, grown under the influence of plant growth biostimulants possess the increase of the activity of enzymes and depression processes of peroxide oxidation of the lipids. It contributes to the increase of stableness of plants to the stress factors. Agroecological conditions do not influence the activity of enzymes, processes of lipoperoxidation. The inflorescences of plants C. officinalis and M. recutita, cultivated both in the Precarpathian region and Western Forest-Steppe zone under the influence of biostimulants possess quite a high level of flavonoids converting to rutin – 1.00±0.02–1.19±0.03 % and 0.97±0.02–1.24±0.06 % respectively. The application of biostimulants «Vermymag» and «Vermyiodis» during cultivating plants contributed to the increase of the content of flavonoids in the inflorescences of C. officinalis and M. recutita respectively by 11–14 % і 9–13 % compared to the control ones. Inflorescences of the plants of M. recutita cv meet the requirements of SPHU by the content of essential oil (0.36–0.40 %) and are the raw material of high quality. It was established that conditions of cultivation did not influence the volume of essential oil. The inflorescences of plants under the influence of biostimulants possess higher content of the carotenes and ascorbic acid and extracts of these plants reveal higher integral antioxidant activity. The biostimulants «Vermymag» and «Vermyiodis» cause greater influence on the physiological and biochemical processes of the plants C. officinalis and M. recutita. However, the inflorescences of plants C. officinalis and M. recutita, grown in the conditions of Western Forest-Steppe zone possess higher content of the ascorbic acid and their alcohol and aqueous extracts reveal higher integral antioxidant activity. The researches have proved that applying preparations «Vermymag» and «Vermyiodis» more effectively contributes to the increase of adaptive opportunities of medicinal plants C. officinalis and M. recutita.