Research was performed to determine whether it was technically feasible to use boronic acid extractants to purify and concentrate the sugars present in hemicellulose hydrolysates. Initially, five types of boronic acids (phenylboronic acid, 3,5-dimethylphenylboronic acid, 4-tert-butylphenylboronic acid, trans-beta-styreneboronic acid or naphthalene-2-boronic acid) dissolved in an organic diluent (Shellsol(R) 2046 or Exxal(R) 10) containing the quaternary amine Aliquat(R) 336 were tested for their ability to extract sugars (fructose, glucose, sucrose and xylose) from a buffered, immiscible aqueous solution. Naphthalene-2-boronic acid was found to give the greatest extraction of xylose regardless of which diluent was used. Trials were then conducted to extract xylose and glucose from solutions derived from the dilute acid hydrolysis of sugar cane bagasse and to then strip the loaded organic solutions using an aqueous solution containing hydrochloric acid. This produced a strip solution in which the xylose concentration had been increased over 7x that of the original hydrolysate while reducing the concentration of the undesirable acid-soluble lignin by over 90%. Hence, this process can be exploited to produce high concentration xylose solutions suitable for direct fermentation. (C) 2004 Society of Chemical Industry.