To investigate the change of structure and physicochemical properties of wheat straw in ball milling process at cellular scale, a series of wheat straws samples with different milling time were produced using an ultrafine vibration ball mill. A multitechnique approach was used to analyze the variation of wheat straw properties. The results showed that the characteristics of wheat straw powder displayed regular changes as a function of the milling time, i.e., the powder underwent the inversion of breakage to agglomerative regime during wheat straw ball milling process. The crystallinity index, bulk density and water retention capacity of wheat straw were exponential relation with ball milling time. Moreover, ball milling continually converted macromolecules of wheat straw cell wall into water-soluble substances resulting in the water extractives proportional to milling time. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.