Abstract <p>An evaluation of spectral methods for early identification of viral damage was carried out on infected plants from the collection of Korean chrysanthemums (<i>Chrysanthemum coreanum</i> (H. Lév. &amp; Vaniot) Nakai ex T. Mori) of the Plant Protection Laboratory. Data on the characteristics of spectrum changes were obtained using hyperspectral images of leaves of healthy and infected plants of two cultivars of Korean chrysanthemum, Garnet and Pink Precious. For the initial confirmation of damage to the photosynthetic apparatus in the cells of infected leaves, quantitative analysis of pigments, delayed fluorescence indices, and image analysis using RGB and NDVI spectral data were used. It was found that viral infection causes damage to the photosynthetic apparatus, expressed in a change in the characteristics of the reflected spectrum of leaves, correlating with a change in the pigment composition of the samples under study. It is shown that the use of hyperspectral analysis allows one to effectively identify the characteristics of changes in the reflected spectrum to identify those spectrum fragments that can allow one to build a methodology for further studies of viral and virus-like changes on the leaf blades of Korean chrysanthemum.</p>