This paper presents and discusses the results of experimental studies on the complex formation of iron ions with melanins isolated from chaga growing on European beech (Fagus sylvatica) and from chaga growing on birch (Betula), which exhibit high antioxi-dant activity. The melanins were isolated by alkaline extraction followed by precipitation in an acidic medium. To identify the isolated pigments, their IR and EPR spectra were recorded. The complex formation of iron ions with these melanins was studied by gam-ma resonance (Mössbauer) spectroscopy (GRS). It was established that allomelanins are capable of efficiently binding iron ions both in the divalent and trivalent states. Im-portantly, allomelanins, similarly to melanins of animal and plant origin, can directly bind pro-oxidant Fe2+ ions and oxidize them to Fe3+, which is inactive in terms of pro-oxidant activity, with subsequent complex formation. The activity of both processes increases with increasing pH of the reaction medium and upon illumination of the sus-pension with visible light.