The Italian walnut industry is based mainly on the autochthonous cultivar Sorrento, that shows goods traits together with some defects. For this reasons in order to obtain cultivars more productive with superior fruit quality traits, a breeding program was started in 1980.During the years 1980-1983, the following controlled crosses were made: Sorrento x Serr, Sorrento x Payne, Sorrento x Pedro, Sorrento x Tehama, Sorrento x Chico, Sorrento x Gustine, Sorrento x Midland, Hartley x Sorrento, Franquette x Sorrento, Franquette x Serr. A total number of 2500 seedlings were obtained and planted in an experimental orchard at 5 x 3 m.Up to 1995, the percentage of the surviving trees resulted in the 80%. Among the hybrids under investigation the most promising were obtained crossing Sorrento with Payne, Serr and Pedro.

In a study about the subtropical fruit was analysed the chemical composition of the nut Pecan lipidic fraction obtained in experimental fields in South Italy. Some biometric, carpologic and merceologic parameters were measured on the nut. The chemical investigation on the oil have interested the following evaluations: organic acidity, peroxide number, unsaponifiable matter, oxidation resistance, spectrophotometric determination in the UV range, triglyceridic, acidic and sterolic composition, tocopherols content. From the analytical results the Pecan flour has demonstrated a high content of oil that presented a good stability to oxidation. The fatty acid composition has a typical pattern of vegetable oil. Palmitic, heptadecanoic, stearic, arachic, and behenic are the saturated acids present; palmitoleic, heptadecenoic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, and eicosenoic are the unsaturated. The oleic acid has showed the higher value (64.6%) in the Green Rever cultivar, the linoleic acid in the Cheyenne cultivar is very high (35.09%). Very important is the total unsaturated fatty acids that in the Green Rever is higher than 91%. The triglyceride profile is represented of fifteen triglycerides, the mix triacylglycerols are the prevalent and the dilinoleyloleylglycerol showed the highest value in the cultivar Cheyenne with a chromatographic area ratio of 29.38%, measured by an UV detector settled at 210 nm. The sterolic composition is the following: cholesterol, brassicasterol, campesterol, stigmasterol, clerosterol, β-sitosterol, Δ 5 -avenasterol, Δ 5,24 -stigmasterol, Δ 7 -stigmastenol, Δ 7 -avenasterol. The tocopherol content is the highest in the Mohawk cv (392 ppm) and the lowest in the Stuart (88 ppm).