The present study deals with the biohydrogen production from starch-containing wastewater collected from the textile industry in Taiwan. The effects of inoculums collected from different sources (sewage sludge, soil and cow dung), substrate concentrations (5-25 g COD/L) and pH (4.0-8.0) on hydrogen production from wastewater were investigated. The cow dung seed had the highest hydrogen production of 101 mL with hydrogen content in biogas of 32.2%. It corresponds to a hydrogen yield (HY) of 1.56 mol H-2/mol hexose and hydrogen production rate (HPR) of 0.93 L/L/d. Response surface methodology was used to evaluate the effects of initial cultivation pH (4.0-8.0) and substrate concentration (5-25 g COD/L) on the hydrogen production at 35 degrees C. At pH 7.0 with a wastewater concentration of 20 g COD/L, a maximum hydrogen production of 66 mL with 31.9% H-2 and corresponding to an HY of 0.97 mol H-2/mol hexose and an HPR of 1.14 L/L/d were obtained. According to the response surface analysis, the optimal conditions for high HPR were a wastewater concentration of 13 g COD/L at an initial cultivation pH of 7.0. The main soluble metabolic products were acetate and butyrate for hydrogen fermentation from textile wastewater. Copyright (C) 2011, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.