Degradation products from the addition of extracellular enzymes from Thermomonospora fusca BD25 to ball-milled wheat straw, oat spell xylan and solubilised kraft pulps were characterised by HPLC and TLC. Overall, a high percentage hydrolysis of oat spell xylan (28.9%) occurred after 26 h incubation. However, the rates of hydrolysis of ball-milled wheat straw and kraft pulp were approximately 4-6-fold less than xylan hydrolysis, although the total percentage hydrolysis of available substrate was similar (22.2% and 25.9% respectively). Incubation of kraft pulp and ball-milled wheat straw by crude extracellular enzymes of T fusca BD25 resulted in the detection of aromatic compounds at concentrations of 0.6 mug ml(-1) and 8.7 mug ml(-1), respectively. Hydrolysis of oat spell xylan by T fusca BD25 extracellular enzymes yielded a mixture of xylose, xylotriose and putative substituted-xylotriose, while the products of ball-milled wheat straw hydrolysis were xylose, glucose and a small oligomer present in the digest. The results highlight the ability of culture supernatant from T fusca to release both simple sugars and aromatic compounds from lignocellulosic substrates and suggest a role for this organism in the biobleaching of pulp.