A gluconate-utilizing strain of Corynebacterium was found to be capable of utilizing aldopentoses and producing corresponding pentitols when pentoses were added to the medium containing gluconate as u carbon source during the cultivation of the organism.
Pentitols produced from D-xylose, L-arabinose, and D-ribose were isolated from the cultured medium and identified as xylitol, L-arabitol, and ribitol, respectively.
The pentitol production was significantly influenced by the concentration of gluconate in the initial medium and that of pentose added to the medium during the cultivation.
The amount of xylitol, L-arabitol, and ribitol reached 69mg/ml, 60mg/ml, and 32mg/ml, respectively, after 14 days of incubation when pentoses were added to the medium con-taining 9.6% potassium gluconate to give a final concentration of 150mg/ml.

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