cotton seed hairs contain 80e95% cellulose
and 5e20% hemicellulose; leaves contain 15e20% cellulose
and 80e85% hemicellulose; and grasses contain 25e40% cellulose
and 25e50% hemicellulose (4,6). Complete hydrolysates derived
from various lignocellulosic biomasses show different ratios of
glucose and xylose. However, effective utilization of lignocellulosic
biomass for lactic acid production is hindered by a number of difficulties,
mainly because most lactic acid bacteria (LAB) cannot
utilize xylose. In addition, carbon catabolite repression (CCR) is
observed in most LAB, where preferred sugars such as glucose
repress the utilization of other non-favourable sugars such as
xylose and arabinose (8,9). Furthermore, the formation of byproducts
limits the yield of lactic acid and increases the purification cost