Abstract: Mineral elements including micronutrients as Fe and Zinc are very essential for human life. Two hundred and forty cultivars and advanced lines, originated from Beijing, Heibei, Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Shaanxi Provinces, were collected and sown in the experiment station of Crop Science Research Institute, in Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences in 1997-1998 wheat season, to evaluate the contents of major mineral elements including micronutrients as Fe, Ze, Mn, Cu, and macronutrients as Ca, Mg, K, P, S. Large variation for most of the mineral elements contents except Mg and S, and big difference between cultivars for all the mineral elements contents were observed. Among the micronutrients, Fe performed the highest average content, with value being of 41.9 mg/Kg, while the lowest for Cu, with value being of 5.54 mg/Kg. Among the macronutrients, K had the highest average content, with value being of 4747 mg/Kg, while the lowest for Ca, with value being of 465 mg/Kg. There were large differences for the mineral elements contents among cultivars with different origin, with cultivars from Beijing and Shandong performed high contents for most of the micronutrients, cultivars from Hebei and Shandong had high contents for most of the macronutrients, while cultivars from Henan Province had the lowest content for most of the mineral elements including micro- and macronutrients. Highly significant positive correlations between the contents of Fe and Zn (r = 0.630), Mg and P (r = 0.571), Mg and S (r = 0.521), Zn and P (r = 0.502), and P and S (r = 0.537) were also observed, indicating possibility for elevating these mineral elements contents at the same time. There was obvious pedigree relationship among the cultivars and advanced lines with high content of mineral elements as Fe and Zn, suggesting that parents with high mineral elements content and grain yield should be used first of all in crossing with the main objective being to improve mineral elements contents in wheat breeding program. It also indicated that in the current situation leading cultivars should be screened for mineral elements contents in order to be used directly of indirectly in wheat breeding program economically and effectively.

Key words: Triticum aestivum, mineral element, bio-fortification