Abstract: As the main component of non-starch polysaccharides in feed stuff，pentosan is the most part of anti-nutritional components in livestock and poultry feed，but also the evaluation indicator of feed stuff performance and effect of enzyme preparations. In order to promote scientific use of non-conventional feed stuff and pentosanase，the latest research progress on pentosan can be used in feed industry was reviewed，physical and chemical properties，distribution，methods of content measurement and anti-nutritional effects were described in detail.

Key words: pentosan; feed stuff; water-soluble pentosan; anti-nutritive factor; xylanase