Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum durum (Desf.) Husn.) is produced on a large scale in Turkey, northern Syria, Kazakhstan, Iran, southern Europe, and North America, and is widely used for making spaghetti, noodles, couscous, and flatbreads. Uptake of Cd by durum wheat species is well known. | Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Research Article Turk J Agric For (2016) 40: 772-782 © TÜBİTAK doi: Cadmium contents of soils and durum and bread wheats on Harran Plain, southeast Turkey 1,2, 1,3 2 Asuman BÜYÜKKILIÇ YANARDAĞ *, Ahmet R. MERMUT , Ángel Faz CANO , 4 1,2 Dora Maria Carmona GARCES , İbrahim Halil YANARDAĞ 1 Department of Soil Science, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey 2 Department of Agrarian Science and Technology, Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT), Murcia, Spain 3 Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK Canada 4 Department of Environmental Science, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín, Colombia Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum durum (Desf.) Husn.) is produced on a large scale in Turkey, northern Syria, Kazakhstan, Iran, southern Europe, and North America, and is widely used for making spaghetti, noodles, couscous, and flatbreads. Uptake of Cd by durum wheat species is well known. The objectives of this study were to determine the cadmium (Cd) level of the soils and durum and bread wheat grown on Harran Plain, southeast Turkey, and evaluate it in terms of food safety. Soil samples were taken from 16 selected grains, leaves, and roots of durum and bread wheats for analyses. The total Cd contents of the surface and subsurface horizons were below the internationally acceptable threshold levels (2 ppm of Cd. The amounts of bioavailable Cd in bread wheat were lower than those in durum wheat. However, the bioavailable Cd contents in durum wheat grains were mg kg–1). A lower Cd content was attributed to the presence of high amounts of carbonates (>20%), Fe-oxyhydroxides (>5%), clay percent (>50%), and the nature of silicate clay mineralogy in the soils we studied. Durum wheat cultivars used in the area could be another reason for the
