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Description:
Purple chokeberry, apparently originated as a hybrid of the black and red chokeberries but might be more accurately considered a distinct species than a hybrid. Its leaves are moderately pubescent on the underside. The fruit is dark purple to black, 7–10mm in width, not persisting into winter. The Viking variety produces larger fruit suitable for making wine, jam, syrup, juice, soft spreads, and tea. It is self-fertile - therefore only one plant is sufficient to bear fruit. Its fruits are big, round and slightly flat, black drupes. They are not quite so aromatic as in case of chokeberries growing in the wild but the shrub itself is more fertile and with its height of 1.5m it has been bred for picking fruit by hand. The shrub is very resistant against disease, drought, insects and pollution. Pea-size, black chokeberries taste sweet-sour-bitter - similarly to blueberries - and are picked from August till October. The small drupes are used either dried (like raisins) or in a form of their juice acquired by steam extraction. Thanks to their high content of flavonoids, folic acid and C and K vitamins the chokeberry is considered to be a medicinal plant in Poland and Russia. It has been proven in experiments in vitro that chokeberry fruit extract - due to ist antioxidative properties - significantly reduces the oxidative stress caused by surgery or in different phases of chemotherapy in patiens with invasive breast cancer.[Kedzierska M. et al.: Effects of the commercial extract of aronia on oxidative stress after the surgery and the chemotherapy. Fitoterapia 2011 Nov 12. PMID: 22101070)]. Because of its strong red colour (as a result of its content of anthocyanins) it is also used as a substitute for food colourings. The chokeberries are at the same time attractive ornamental plants for gardens. They are naturally understory and woodland edge plants, and grow well when planted under trees. In the U.S., aronia berries are used in mass-marketed juice varieties for color and marketed for their antioxidant properties. In Poland they are dried to make an herbal tea. Aronia is also used as a flavoring or colorant for beverages or yogurts. Antioxidant qualities of chokeberries are due to their deep purple, almost black pigmentation that arises from dense contents of phenolic phytochemicals, especially anthocyanins. (Source Wikipedia)