It is known that lower furfural yields are obtained for the dehydration of biomass resources compared to pure pentoses. In order to study this discrepancy, the dehydration of xylose (0.05 mol L-1) in complex saccharide solutions using homogeneous catalysts is investigated. Firstly, kinetic results are presented for the dehydration of both xylose and arabinose in separate experiments. In the second part, experimental results of the dehydration of xylose in complex saccharide solutions are compared with these kinetic models. It is observed that pentoses disappear similarly in complex saccharide solutions as they do separately. Furfural, however, is degrading faster in more complex saccharide solutions. Both the presence of pentose and hexose degradation products enhances furfural degradation, however, the effect of the latter was larger. These observations partly explain the lower furfural yields observed for the dehydration of actual biomass resources. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.