Lignocellulosic biomass, particularly corn fiber, represents a renewable resource that is available in sufficient quantities from the corn wet milling industry to serve as a low cost feedstock for production of fuel alcohol and valuable coproducts. Several enzymatic and chemical processes have potential for the conversion of cellulose and hemicellulose to fermentable sugars. The hydrolyzates are generally rich in pentoses (D-xylose and L-arabinose) and D-glucose. Yeasts produce a variety of polyalcohols from pentose and hexose sugars. Many of these sugar alcohols have food applications as low-calorie bulking agents. During the screening of 49 yeast strains capable of growing on L-arabinose, we observed that two strains were superior secretors of L-arabitol as a major extracellular product of L-arabinose. Candida entomaea NRRL Y-7785 and Pichia guilliermondii NRRL Y-2075 produced L-arabitol (0.70 g/g) from L-arabinose (50 g/l) at 34 degrees C and pH 5.0 and 4.0, respectively. Both yeasts produced ethanol (0.32-0.33 g/g) from D-glucose (50 g/l) and only xylitol (0.43-0.51 g/g) from D-xylose (50 g/l). Both strains preferentially utilized D-glucose > D-xylose > L-arabinose from mixed substrate (D-glucose, D-xylose and L-arabinose, 1:1:1, 50 g/l, total) and produced ethanol (0.36-0.38 g/g D-glucose), xylitol (0.02-0.08 g/g D-xylose) and L-arabitol (0.70-0.81 g/g L-arabinose). The yeasts co-utilized D-xylose (6.2-6.5 g/l) and L-arabinose (4.9-5.0 g/l) from corn fiber acid hydrolyzate simultaneously and produced xylitol (0.10 g/g D-xylose) and L-arabitol (0.53-0.54 g/g L-arabinose).