中文摘要：

木质素广泛存在于高等植物中，是仅次于纤维素的地球上第二丰富的生物聚合体，有效地利用自然界中含量丰富的木质素具有重大的意义。然而，由于木质素结构的复杂性，对其具体结构的认识和寻找合适的木质素结构分析方法成为人们长期探索的课题。本文主要阐述了目前对木质素单体的生物合成途径和木质素的化学组成、官能团、单体间的连接方式、木质素模型化合物等木质素结构方面的研究进展，并从降解法和非降解法两个角度介绍了常用的木质素结构分析方法。

英文摘要：

Lignin exists in many kinds of higher plants. Comparing with the cellulose, lignin is the secondary abundance of biological polymers in the earth. It is meaningful to use the lignin effectively. However, because of the complexity of lignin structure, it is always an important research project in the long run for people to know the details of its structure, and to find out the appropriate methods to analyze it. This article mainly discussed some progress in the biosynthesis pathways of lignin units and the structure of the lignin, including the chemistry composition, functional groups, the linkages of lignin monomers and the model compounds. Meanwhile it introduced some degradation methods and non-degradation methods of analyzing the lignin.