Biomass degradation compounds significantly inhibit biochemical conversion of biomass prehydrolysates to biofuels and chemicals, such as lactic acid. To characterize the structure-activity relationship of carbonyl inhibition on lactic acid fermentation, we examined effects of eight carbonyl compounds (furfural, 5-hydroxymethyl furfural, vanillin, syringaldehyde, 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, phthalaldehyde, benzoic acid, and pyrogallol aldehyde) and creosol on lactic acid production by Lactobacillus delbrueckii. Pyrogallol aldehyde reduced the cell growth rate by 35 % at 1.0 mM and inhibited lactic acid production completely at 2.0 mM. By correlating the molecular descriptors to the inhibition constants in lactic acid fermentation, we found a good relationship between the hydrophobicity (Log P) of aldehydes and their inhibition constants in fermentation. The inhibitory effect of carbonyl inhibitors appeared to correlate with their thiol reactivity as well. In addition, we found that H2O2 detoxified pyrogallol aldehyde and phthalaldehyde inhibitory activity. H2O2 detoxification was applied to real biomass prehydrolysates in lactic acid fermentation.