The physical properties of the sheet-shaped material prepared from bacterial cellulose (BC) produced by four strains of Gluconacetobacter xylinus (ATCC 10245, IFO 13963, 13772 and 13773) from Hesterin medium (HS) and in the presence of lignosulfonate (HSL) were studied. A scanning electron micrograph showed, the ribbons that were produced in HSL medium are coarse and less entangled compared with the ribbons that were produced by the control medium. Moreover, the average Young's modulus was 633.00 MPa compared with 450.76 MPa in absence of lignosulfonate. It was also found that the average viscosity values of the produced sheets from HSL medium was 76.98 cP compared with 36.48 cP from HS medium, which indicates a high degree of polymerization. (c) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.