This aim of this study was to investigate the effect of ammonium hydroxide (NH(4)OH) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) pre-treatment on the digestibility of sugarcane bagasse (SCB) by hemicellulase action. It was found that pre-treatment of SCB with NH(4)OH removed a larger percentage of the SCB lignin and effectively increased SCB digestibility 13.13 fold. The greatest amount of reducing sugar (1194.88 mu mol/min) and largest degree of synergy (2.85) was obtained using it combination of two enzymes (25% ManA and 75% XynA) with NH(4)OH pre-treated SCB. In this study, NH4OH therefore appeared to be a more effective pre-treatment step for subsequent hydrolysis by hemicellulases. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.