The presence of phenolic acids in cereal grain is thought to influence starch hydrolysis during liquefaction and saccharification of grain flours in the bioethanol industry. As a basis for remodeling starch hydrolysis systems and understanding inhibition mechanisms, the composition and concentration of phenolic acids in whole grain flours of triticale, wheat, barley, and corn were analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. The total phenolic acid contents (sum of nine phenolic acids) in the four grains were 1.14, 1.70, 0.90, and 1.25 mg/g, respectively, with more than 90% found in the bound form. Ferulic, coumaric, and protocatechuic acids were the major phenolic acids in triticale and wheat. Gallic acid was also rich in triticale. Ferulic, coumaric, hydroxybenzoic, and gallic acids were predominant in barley. In corn, ferulic, coumaric, gallic, and syringic acids were abundant. On the basis of these profiles, pure phenolic acids were added individually and collectively to isolated starches at amounts either equivalent to or 3 times those in the whole grains for hydrolysis. The degree of starch hydrolysis with α-amylase and amyloglucosidase decreased up to 8% when individual phenolic acids were present in cooked starch slurry. The decreases were more pronounced when phenolic acids were added collectively (4-5% with α-amylase and 9-13% with sequential α-amylase and amyloglucosidase). The study of a phenolic acid-starch-enzyme model system indicated that the interactions of phenolic acid-enzyme and phenolic acid-starch significantly contributed to the inhibitory effect of starch hydrolysis. Heating facilitated the interactions. Phenolic acids thus play a significant role in the resistance of starch to enzyme and/or the loss of enzyme activity during starch hydrolysis.