Heavy metal contamitantion of agricultural soils, which could affect the food chain, has become one of the major concerns in the world in recent years. This study investigated the effects of mixed cultivation of companion crops of bean, soybean or mung bean on the uptake of cadmium by corn and sunflower from a soil contaminated with 5 mg/kg cadmium.For this purpose, two separate pot experiments were carried out. Each experiment was arranged based on a completely randomized design with three replications. Treatments in each experiment included co-cropping of corn and bean, corn and soybean, corn and mung bean, sunflower and bean, sunflower and soybean, sunflower and mung bean, corn monocultureand sunflower monoculture. Plants were harvested in the first experiment at vegetative stage (60 days after planting) and in the second experiment at reproductive stage (90 days after planting). The results show that at vegetative stage, shoot dry weight of corn was decreased as a result of co-cropping with bean and soybean in comparison with corn monoculture. At reproductive stage, however, corn shoot weight was decreased in all mixtures. Sunflower shoot weight was decreased when grown with any of bean, soybean and mung bean companion crops compared to sunflower monoculture in the plants harvested at both vegetative and reproductive stages. The concentration of cadmium in the plants harvested at vegetative stage was higher in corn grown with mung bean compared to that of corn monoculture and it was also higher in sunflower grown with soybean compared to that of sunflower monoculture. At reproductive stage, however, the concentration of cadmium in corn plants cultivated with any of bean, soybean and mung bean companion crops was less compared to that of corn monoculture. At this stage, also, the concentration of cadmium in sunflower grown with bean was less compared to that of sunflower monoculture. The differences between other mixtures with related monocultures were not significant in this regard. The concentration of zinc in the plants harvested at vegetative stage was higher in corn grown with mung bean compared to that of corn monoculture and it was also higher in sunflower grown with soybean compared to that of sunflower monoculture. At reproductive stage, however, there were no significant differences in terms of zinc concentration between co-cropping treatments with related monocultures. The concentration of cadmium in the grains was lower in corn grown with soybean or mung bean compared to that of corn monoculture but this was not evident for corn and bean co-cropping. Mixed cropping of sunflower with any of bean, soybean and mung bean companion crops also decreased cadmium concentration in sunflower grains. There were positive correlations between the variation in the cadmium concentration and the enzymatic activities of glutathiyone peroxidase and glutathione reductase in both corn and sunflower plants. This was more pronunced for glutathiyone peroxidase. The results obtained from this study show that co-cropping of bean, soybean or mung bean companion crops may significantly affect the uptake and distribution of cadmium and zinc and also the activity of antioxidants enzymes in corn and sunflower plants.