Chokeberry: chemical composition, use and contraindications

Garden or wild-growing chokeberry or aronia is a tall, sprawling shrub, which is valued for its rich black fruit used in medicine, cosmetology and cooking. Aronia black-fruited came to Russia from North America, for the first time, the selection of this plant in our homeland was carried out by the famous breeder Ivan Vladimirovich Michurin, who recommended chokeberry for growing in the northern regions of our continent.

Over time, chokeberry Aronia became a well-known garden crop that got acclimatized in the harsh Russian climate, and the selection varieties of this plant are generally called “Aronia Michurin”. Today, black chokeberry is grown on an industrial scale, harvesting plant berries for the pharmaceutical and food industries.

Chokeberry is a cold-resistant plant that can withstand sub-zero temperatures of up to 40 degrees. Altai, Siberia, Central Russia, the Urals, and Yakutia became places of its growth.

In southern latitudes, Aronia caught on in Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Asia, and the Caucasus. Habitat plants are forest edges, glades, undergrowth in the zone of forest-steppe. Best of all aronia feels in temperate climates, it is undemanding to the composition of the soil.

Black-fruited mountain ash is very fond of Russian gardeners for their high yield, unpretentiousness, frost resistance and a magnificent decorative look. Today, plant nurseries offer many varieties of chokeberry, the most common of which are considered varieties: Hakkiya, Aron, Egert, Belder, Rubin, Chernookaya. Often black orchards from the bushes gardeners make a hedge. Growing bushes form a solid array, intertwining crowns with each other.

Aronia Aronia has the Latin name Arónia melanocárpa, and its other name is chokeberry, due to the fact that the fruits of this plant are black when ripe, and also because the shape of the flowers and fruits of the plant is very similar to the usual rowan.

The botanical characteristic of the chokeberry chokeberry species reports that this shrub originates from the genus Aronia, the family Pink, of the Rosaceae order. Externally, the plant looks like a well-branched shrub that reaches a height of three meters. The young plant has a small branching of the crown, but by a mature age it reaches more than two meters in diameter. It is noteworthy that the young branches, shoots of red color, which the next year is replaced by brown or gray bark.

The root system of black chokeberry is very well developed, but the roots are located close to the soil surface and are sensitive to the presence of moisture. The plant is light-requiring, does not like the soil, which contains a large amount of mineral salts and excess stagnant water. The leaves of the black chokeberry have a rich green color, shiny and tough, have a rounded shape with serrate edges. The size of the sheet reaches from 3.5 to 7 centimeters. A shrub looks very decorative in the fall when its foliage gets red under the influence of night frosts.

Black mountain ash blooms at the very end of May or at the beginning of June, depending on the region of its growth. Small bisexual flowers of five petals are collected in inflorescences, reaching a diameter of up to 6 centimeters. Flowering lasts 14-16 days, the flowers are pollinated with insects, after the end of the flowering period, multiple fruit ovaries form.

Fruiting in a young plant starts from the 3rd (less often from the 2nd) year of life, fruits with long stems have the form of round berries with 4-8 seeds and are collected in clusters. When ripe, the skin of the berries has a black and blue color and is covered with a slight waxy coating. Ripe black chokeberry is a juicy berry that has a sweet, slightly astringent, tart taste.

The juice of the berries has a dark purple color. Rowan ripens in late August or early September, the exact time depends on weather conditions and the habitat of the plant. Adult chokeberry is capable of yielding 5-8 kilograms of berries per season. Gather the fruits before the onset of the first frost, as frost increases the amount of sugars and starch components in the berries, reducing the amount of vitamins.

Chokeberry Aronia is used as a medicine in traditional and folk medicine. The State Pharmacopoeia contains a detailed description of the requirements for the fruits of this plant, the purpose of which is advisable when treating the heart, blood vessels, and the gastrointestinal tract. Chokeberry successfully treats disorders of metabolic processes in the body, stimulates the immune system, helps with beriberi and allergic reactions.

The calorie content of chokeberry per 100 grams of fresh berries is 55.3 kilocalories. While the protein in this volume contains 1.5 grams, fat only 0.2 grams, and carbohydrates - up to 11 grams.

Chokeberry is a real storehouse of unique natural ingredients containing vitamins and trace elements. If you take 100 grams of the berries of this plant and determine its chemical composition, you get the following picture:

• Vitamin B1 (thiamine) - 0.01 mg;
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) - 0.02 mg;
• Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) - 0.06 mg;
• vitamin PP (niacin) - 0.3 mg;
• Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic acid) - 0.5 mg;
• vitamin A (beta-carotene) - 1.2 mg;
• Vitamin E (tocopherol) - 1.5 mg;
• Vitamin B9 (folic acid) - 1.7 mg;
• manganese - 0.5 mg;
• iron, 1.1 mg;

• sodium, 4.0 mg;
• iodine - 8.0 mg;
• magnesium — 14.1 mg;
• calcium - 28.3 mg;
• phosphorus - 55.2 mg;
• potassium - 158.2 mg;
• organic acids - 2.3 g;
• plant fiber - 4.2 g;
• saccharides - 8.6 g;
• starchy substances - 81.2 g.

In addition to the listed components, black chokeberry berries contain pectin, fiber, tanning and coloring substances, essential oils, bioflavonoids, dextrins. Chokeberry has one amazing feature - the roots of the plant actively absorb iodine, and the more iodine is contained in the soil, the greater its content will be in the fruits. Such benefits of berries are simply irreplaceable in case of iodine deficiency in the human body.

The healing properties of black insects have a fairly extensive list of applications:

• Increased blood pressure. Aronia has the ability to thicken the blood, removing excess fluid from the body, resulting in a decrease in circulating blood volume and the level of pressure on the walls of blood vessels and arteries. It helps to stop the attack of hypertension.
• Atherosclerotic vascular changes. The high content of rutin, ascorbic acid, and flavonoids in the fruits of chokeberry helps to reduce the fragility and permeability of the walls of blood vessels and capillaries, and also dilutes cholesterol, preventing it from accumulating and being fixed as plaques in the bloodstream.
• Anti-inflammatory property. Natural phytoncides of aronia have the property to reduce inflammatory processes and strengthen the natural immunological processes in the body.
• Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Black fruit berries have an impact on the production of gastric juice, increasing its acidity and the amount of secreted, which contributes to the improvement of digestive processes. Fruits significantly improve the flow of bile, normalize the work of the pancreas, liver and intestines.
• Treatment of intestinal dyspepsia. Aronia fruits have in their composition a large amount of tannins and dyes, which explains their astringent tart taste. With diarrhea, when the stomach is weak, the stomach hurts, the general state of health worsens, and the use of preparations from this plant strengthens and normalizes liquid stool, and also improves the functioning of the entire gastrointestinal tract.

• Free radical removal. Quite often, people living in ecologically unfavorable areas have problems with blood, the causes of which are poisoning with heavy metal salts and exposure to radioactive isotopes. Aronia Aronia helps cleanse the blood and remove toxic substances from the body, against the background of which there is a significant improvement in overall health.
• Mental and physical stress. Fruits of chokeberry have a mild sedative effect, eliminating excessive nervous agitation, as well as contributing to the rapid recovery of the psycho-emotional and physical resources of the body.
• Age-related vision changes. The high content of vitamin A in the berries is a good help in the treatment of senile cataract and glaucoma. Vitamin also inhibits age-related changes in the retina, improving visual acuity.

For adults, Aronia is prescribed for 3-4 weeks with breaks. In just one year, 3-4 such treatments can be carried out. Quite often, you can hear positive feedback about the treatment of chokeberry from pregnant women who suffer from toxicosis.

Chokeberry improves liver function and helps to cope with bouts of nausea. Aronia Aronia can be prescribed to children from the age of 3 years. Its usefulness is obvious, but the dosage is necessary while sparing so as not to disrupt the bowels. Entering it into the child’s diet should be literally from several berries, using their juice, and for viral or catarrhal diseases of the throat, irrigation can be done from juice diluted with boiled water or decoction of leaves (30 pieces per liter of water).

Chokeberry can rightly be considered a real green hospital. However, official medicine began to use this plant only in 1961, making it on the state pharmacopoeia lists. Preparations from chokeberry are available in any pharmacy chain, treatment with their help is not expensive. If you wish, you can prepare berries and make healing preparations from them at home.

Indications for use and medicinal properties of black chokeberry are as follows:

• In case of violation of blood clotting, it has the property to increase its viscosity.
• In case of violations of the liver or after toxic effects or postponed antibiotic therapy improves its work, being a natural hepatoprotector.
• In diseases of the heart, it intensively supplies the heart muscle with potassium, preventing the development of a heart attack, stroke, and also increases stamina and contractility of the myocardium.

• When hypothyroidism improves the thyroid gland, sufficiently supplying it with iodine components.
• For prevention and treatment in the early stages of tumor processes, aronia chokes the development of atypical cells and is quite a strong antioxidant agent.
• In atherosclerosis, the plant reduces the accumulation of cholesterol in the body, and also dilutes the cholesterol already present in the body, preventing the formation of plaques in blood vessels and arteries. It has been observed that the further progress of the disease against the background of the intake of chokeberry is significantly inhibited.
• In diseases of the liver contributes to the discharge of bile from the gallbladder, expanding the excretory ducts, and also prevents the formation of stones.
• When trophic vascular disorders reduces the proliferative ability of the walls of blood vessels and their fragility, increases the elasticity of muscle fibers.
• With fluid retention and pronounced edema, it removes excess water from the body naturally, with a mild diuretic effect.
• With gastritis with low secretion and insufficient concentration of gastric juice increases the production and concentration of hydrochloric acid, thereby improving the digestion and functioning of the digestive tract.
• It has the ability to lower high blood pressure by changing the viscosity of the blood and reducing its circulating volume in the bloodstream.

• With a low concentration of vitamins and minerals, as well as after suffering serious illnesses with a long recovery period, the body helps to replenish the vitamin and mineral balance, strengthen the immune system and increase the body's adaptation forces.
• When the endocrine glands and hormonal balance are disturbed, the black chokeberry helps to normalize the hormonal background and improves the body's metabolic processes.
• With arthritis, rheumatism, gout, inflammatory diseases of the urogenital system, the digestive tract of the wolfberry helps to eliminate foci of inflammation and improves the general condition of the body, reducing painful and unpleasant feelings.
• In glaucoma and cataract, rowan can improve the function of vision, normalizing intraocular pressure and improving the regenerative properties of the retina. In addition, it prevents age-related changes in the organs of vision, for a long time postponing the period of their occurrence.
• Improves emotional background, reduces age irritability, child hyperexcitability, reduces the effect of chronic fatigue, improves the process of falling asleep.
• It has the property of removing toxic substances and cleanses the body at the cellular level from the effects of adverse environmental factors, including with radiation sickness.

• It is a natural filter, cleansing the intestines from slagging naturally.
• Relieves muscle spasm with insufficient content of potassium ions in the body.
• When diarrhea helps to normalize the frequency and consistency of the stool, normalizes intestinal motility and improves the digestive processes.
• Preparations from black chokeberry are not recommended for everyone. In some cases, they are contraindicated, and if used incorrectly, you can harm the body. Aronia is not recommended for use in children under three years of age;
• Peptic ulcer of the stomach, intestines is an absolute contraindication to the use of Aronia.
• Inflammatory processes in the small intestine or large intestine, called colitis, can be exacerbated by the reception of a black wolf.
• Gastritis with high acidity can not be treated with preparations of chokeberry chokeberry, as this plant enhances the concentration and volume of gastric juice produced.

• With low blood pressure, preparations of the chernoplodka will contribute to a further reduction in blood pressure, which can lead to fainting, dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
• Thrombosis and increased blood clotting is an absolute contraindication to the use of chokeberry berries because of the threat of blood clots and the occurrence of vascular thromboembolism.
• In the event of allergic reactions or individual intolerance, preparations of black chokeberry are contraindicated.

Quite often, chokeberry chokeberry is prescribed to pregnant women, especially in the first half of pregnancy, when the likelihood of developing toxicosis is particularly high. Improving the work of the liver, aronia is able to eliminate toxicosis with its manifestations such as nausea, increased salivation, vomiting. Against the background of black chokeberry intake, toxicosis is less pronounced or disappears altogether.

Important is the ability of this plant to improve the condition of blood vessels and normalize blood circulation. Under the influence of chokeberry components, the risk of placental abruption, sudden uterine bleeding and spontaneous miscarriage is significantly reduced. In the second half of pregnancy, when the load on the female body becomes large enough, there is often a malfunction of the kidneys and urinary system, as a result of which the woman suffers from high arterial blood pressure and edema of the lower extremities.

Preparations from chokeberry help to remove excess fluid from the body, without causing harm to the mother and her unborn child, as well as lead to indicators of blood BP to physiological norms. However, for the treatment of edema, accompanied by low blood pressure, chokeberry is not recommended.

During breastfeeding, black chokeberry improves lactation processes, and also helps mother and baby improve their immune defenses and normalize the vitamin-mineral balance. Restoration of the maternal organism after a long pregnancy and the stage of childbirth while taking drugs from chokeberry is much faster.

The duration of the reverse involution of the uterus is reduced, bleeding stops, postoperative stitches heal better and faster, mood improves, and there is a general surge of strength.

Chokeberry has proven itself in the treatment of a number of serious diseases, and doctors often prescribe its use in conjunction with the main therapy. This happens in the following cases:

• With type 2 diabetes. Against the background of Aronia intake, the work of the endocrine organs, including the pancreas, is improved. Enough enzyme production helps control blood sugar levels, and also normalizes the functioning of all organs of the digestive system. Against the background of improvement of the gastrointestinal tract and liver, the intestine is less clogged and the effects of the disease characterized by difficult to heal trophic ulcers, reduced vision function (diabetic retinopathy), exudative diathesis, high blood pressure, gingival bleeding are reduced. For the treatment of this endocrine disease, chokeberry preparations are prepared using sugar-substituting substances - xylitol, sorbitol, fructose, stevia.
• In the postoperative period. When recovering from surgery, drugs from chokeberry Aronia reduce the risk of breakthrough bleeding, as well as improve the body's regenerative functions. Wounds heal faster without the risk of postoperative complications and inflammatory processes.

• Breast cancer Experts in the field of oncology believe that against the background of taking preparations from chokeberry, the growth of atypical tumor cells is significantly inhibited, and the effect of chemotherapy increases. Aronia improves the overall tone of the body and enhances its resistance to adverse factors.Often, chokeberry is prescribed as a prophylactic agent for women suffering from fibrocystic mastopathy, able to degenerate into a cancer, or an ovarian cyst. Blackberry preparations improve hemodynamics and are good antioxidants.
• Bowel disease. Aronia Aronia remarkably treats hemorrhoids, especially those forms that are accompanied by bleeding. The use of drugs from this plant in combination with other drugs contributes to the fact that the extended hemorrhoids stop bleeding and significantly reduced in size. This leaves the pain, and eliminates the inflammatory processes that, as a rule, always accompany this disease.

• Phlebeurysm. Aronia is not often used for varicose veins, this plant improves vascular hemodynamics, pain, heaviness in the legs and swelling, as well as the risk of bleeding and nonhealing ulcers.
• Treatment of colds. For colds, chokeberry juice or a decoction of the leaves of this plant gargle, and solutions of weak concentration are instilled into the nose during sinusitis and sinus. These agents have an antimicrobial effect, and also perfectly eliminate inflammatory processes, helping to cleanse and speed the healing of tissues affected by a bacterial infection.

For the treatment of various diseases, ready-made pharmaceutical preparations or medicinal collections are used, which, in addition to chokeberry, contain a combination of other natural herbal ingredients. No less effective are considered and funds from chokeberry Aronia homemade.

Modern nutritionists recommend women with overweight to eat black chokeberry berries for weight loss. Properly composed diet in combination with black chokeberry berries gives excellent results in dropping extra pounds. It is noticed that the plant is able to maintain a normal level of glucose in the blood, as a result of which there is no keen desire for extraordinary food intake.

In addition, the active ingredients that make up the berries, improve metabolism and elimination of toxins from the body, thereby speeding up the metabolic processes. Accelerated metabolism, in turn, contributes to better digestion of food and allows, with small portions of food, to achieve fast and long-term satiety of the body.

In the process of making various therapeutic agents, freshly harvested, frozen or dried black chokeberry fruits are used. In the pharmacy, preparations prepared from chokeberry Aronia can be found in the following release forms:

• dried fruits of chokeberry;
• syrup from mountain ash;
• balm on alcohol from chokeberry;
• black chokeberry oil;
• powder capsules of dried chokeberry berries;
• Cosmetic cream containing juice of fruits of mountain ash.

On the shelves of grocery departments of modern hypermarkets, you can easily find food products that contain components of black chokeberry fruit:

• Juice under the brand name “Gardens of the Pridon” - “Black-fruited Rowan with an Apple”;
• jam from the fruit of chokeberry Aronia;
• soluble chicory with an extract from the berries of mountain ash;
• Kissel in the form of a soluble concentrate with chokeberry, ginger and cinnamon.

Traditional medicine knows a lot of a variety of recipes that help with certain diseases.

You need to take 25 grams of dried fruits of chokeberry and pour 250 milliliters of water. Over low heat, the composition is boiled until boiling, then removed from the heat and covered with a lid. The broth is allowed to brew for 2-3 hours, then filtered. Broths from chokeberry take 150 milliliters three times a day, as a general tonic.

For 1 kilogram of fresh fruits of mountain ash take 1000 milliliters of vodka and 500 grams of granulated sugar. Aronia and sugar are mixed, and then the ingredients are poured with vodka. Capacity tightly sealed and left in a dark place for 70 days. Periodically, the tincture must be reached and shaken. At the end of the period of infusion, the liquid is filtered and placed in a bottle of dark glass for storage. The shelf life of this tincture is a few years.

The alcohol drug composition of chokeberry chokeberry is used in 5-10 milliliters with meals to improve appetite and digestion.

One and a half kilograms of berries are taken, they are poured with 2000 ml of boiling water. To the hot formulation add 15 grams of citric acid and mix the ingredients until the citric acid is completely dissolved. The container with the composition is covered with a lid and left to infuse for about one day.

Then the composition must be filtered and from the resulting juice to prepare a syrup. To this end, one kilogram of granulated sugar is added to one liter of juice and the composition is boiled over low heat, the cooking time should be no more than 10 minutes. The finished product is poured into a sterile container and sealed with lids. Storage of the syrup is possible in a dark place at room temperature. They take 5 milliliter syrup of black chokeberry fruit before eating three times a day, it helps a lot in treating cardiovascular diseases.

It will take 300 grams of freshly harvested rowan fruits and 500 milliliters of honey. The washed berries are crushed to the state of berry puree and poured with melted honey. The composition is well mixed and poured into jars for subsequent storage in the refrigerator.

Take rowan honey one tablespoon three times a day with high blood pressure and diseases of the cardiovascular system. The course of treatment should not exceed 40 days

If you want to save as much as possible the valuable biologically active components of fresh chokeberry berries, prepare juice from them. For this purpose, take 500 grams of freshly picked berries and finely knead them or crush them in a blender. To the resulting berry puree add 300 grams of granulated sugar and mix well until it is completely dissolved. To the resulting mass is added 500 milliliters of boiled water.

Before use, fruit drink must be passed through a fine-mesh sieve. Mors is recommended to take 250 milliliters three times a day. You can keep the drink in the refrigerator, but its shelf life should be no more than a day. For this reason, you need to cook a small portion, which will be used during the day. The drink tones well, stimulates the immune system and reduces colds in acute respiratory diseases.

To use another way of harvesting fresh black chokeberry berries for the winter, it is not at all necessary to subject them to heat treatment. You can cook berry puree with sugar. For this purpose, freshly picked chokeberry fruits and granulated sugar are taken in proportions of 1: 1, that is, 1 kilogram of sugar is needed for 1 kg of berries.

Berries need to grind and mix with sugar, and then decompose the mixture into clean containers for storage.From such a billet in the winter you can cook compote, make juice or jelly. Often this option is used as a filling in pies. Store chokeberry Aronia with sugar optimally in the refrigerator.

To make jam, we need:

• one kilogram of berries;
• one and a half kilograms of granulated sugar;
• 250 milliliters of finished fruit juice;
• 500 milliliters of water;
• juice of one lemon;
• 50 milliliters of rum.

First, the fruit is placed in a container with a lid and put it in the oven at a temperature of 50-60 degrees for approximately 4-5 hours. The berries will burst and highlight the juice to be transferred to another container and add water, fruit juice and granulated sugar to the juice. Selected berries need to be postponed, they will be needed later.

The composition is put on a slow fire and cook 10 minutes from the moment of boiling. Then the berries are added to the syrup and the mixture is boiled again for about 10 minutes. Then rum is added to the jam and boiled until the fruits of chokeberry become transparent, and then lemon juice is introduced. After adding lemon juice, jam is removed from the heat and immediately poured into clean storage jars.

Fresh enumerated fruits are laid out in small-sized bags or plastic containers and placed in the cold for subsequent freezing. The optimal freezing temperature is considered minus 15 degrees. If the temperature is lower, many nutrients and fruit sugars under the influence of low temperatures transform into starchy compounds, and during thawing, aronium will lose its valuable medicinal properties.

Berries need to sort, remove damaged and rotten fruit and remove the stem. Parchment paper is lined on a baking sheet and the berries are scattered in a single layer. The baking sheet is placed in the oven, where the heating temperature does not exceed 50 degrees. The oven door should remain slightly ajar throughout the drying process so that the moisture from the berries can evaporate.

The drying process takes 8-10 hours, while the berries from time to time need to be mixed on a baking sheet for uniform drying. The finished raw material should be dense and wrinkled. You can not overdry the berries to such a state that when pressed, they would crumble into dust - the skin of properly dried fruits should spring up a little under the fingers when pressed. After the fruits have dried, they are collected in a cardboard container, which must be left open for another 2-3 days to allow the remaining moisture to evaporate. Then the box is closed and placed in a place protected from moisture and direct sunlight.

To reduce high blood pressure and relieve hypertension, it is helpful to drink fresh juice from the fruits of chokeberry Aronia. For this purpose, 60 milliliters of freshly squeezed juice is mixed with 40 milliliters of honey.

The resulting composition is consumed in 5 milliliters 3 times a day for one month. Portions each time cooked fresh, as they are consumed. In case of hypoanicidal gastritis, freshly squeezed black rowan juice takes 50 milliliters on an empty stomach 30 minutes before the start of a meal.

Chokeberry fell in love with many gardeners and gardeners. To grow it in my area is not so difficult.The plant will not only please you with fragrant flowers in the spring and beautiful red-purple foliage in the autumn, but also allow you to collect a good harvest of berries that will help strengthen the health of you and your family.

Here are some useful tips that you will need when planting plants:

• A place for planting chokeberry Aronia should be chosen sunny and spacious, since the crown of an adult bush has a tendency to strong branching.
• For planting is best suited area with close groundwater to the soil surface.
• Planting cuttings is best done in May or September, so that before winter the plant has had time to take root and adapt to new conditions.
• Aronia seedlings are buried in light, flowing soils for 6-7 centimeters, and in heavy loamy soils - by 2-3 centimeters, while the root neck of the seedling should be at a level not lower than 3 centimeters from the soil level.
• Aronia Aronia likes regular fertilizing with organic fertilizers and timely watering. An adult plant when watering needs a water volume of at least 30 liters.

• The soil around Aronia shrub must necessarily be mulched, and it can be loosened only to a depth of 8-10 centimeters, while it is important to try not to hurt the root system of the shrub.
• Chokeberry Aronia is a self-pollinating plant, so only one shrub can be planted on the site, and it will still produce fruit.
• The shrub is propagated by seeds, cuttings and layering, and the easiest and most reliable way to consider reproduction as a cut from an adult plant.
• Annually, the black chokeberry needs crown formation to increase the yield. Old, frozen and weak shoots are subject to removal.
• When picking berries, you need to remember that you need to pick a brush without grabbing the leaves, because there are flower buds in the leaf's sinus, which will provide you with a harvest of berries for the next year.
• Berries of chokeberry Aronia are not showered until the arrival of frost, remaining hanging tassels on the branches.

Chokeberry begins to bear fruit at the age of 2-3 years, the yield is maintained for 20 -25 years, after which the plant is to be replaced. In winter, young saplings cover with spruce leaves, and adult plants overwinter without shelter. It is important to remember that with the introduction of a large amount of nitrogenous components, the resistance of the mountain ash is significantly reduced.

Harvesting of berries is carried out in the middle of October - by this time the most thorough ripening of the black chokeberry occurs. It is best to have time to collect the fruits before the onset of the first frost, so that aronium does not lose its beneficial properties.

Buying chokeberry in the market, ask where it was collected, and also pay attention to its appearance. Berries that grow in a clean place will not look dusty in appearance, their skin should be shiny with a slight waxy coating.

In the next video, an expert will talk about how to properly plant and care for chokeberry aronia.