Ricerc@Sapienza

Walnuts have been widely investigated because of their chemical composition, which is particularly rich in unsaturated fatty acids, responsible for different benefits in the human body. Some of these fruits, depending on the harvesting area, are considered a high value-added food, thus resulting in a higher selling price. In Italy, walnuts are harvested throughout the national territory, but the fruits produced in the Sorrento area (South Italy) are commercially valuable for their peculiar organoleptic characteristics.

One hundred and forty-nine (149) Italian saffron samples produced in the years from 2013 to 2016 in distinct sites located in five different Italian regions, Abruzzo, Tuscany, Umbria, Campania and Sardinia, together with twenty-seven (27) commercial samples, have been analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode array detection (HPLC-DAD). Among the investigated samples, those produced in Abruzzo (L'Aquila area) present an even higher added-value, because, since 2005, saffron of L'Aquila has been granted of the protected designation of origin (PDO) mark.

In the last years, element content has been used as geographical tracer to determine the provenance of food. In the present work the content of 19 minerals (K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Zn, B, Cu, Al, Mn, Ni, Cr, Pb, Co, As, Se, Cd, Sb
and V) and 13 lanthanide elements (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm and Lu) in Protect Geographical Indication (PGI) Interdonato lemon Messina (Italy) and non-PGI Turkish lemon pulps was evaluated