Chemical conversion of glucose into lactic acid in water requires harsh reaction conditions to obtain relatively low product yields. Herein, a simple, but highly efficient chemocatalytic process is reported for the production of lactic acid from glucose in the presence of Ba(OH)(2) under a nitrogen atmosphere at 1 bar total pressure, where glucose was selectively converted to lactic acid with a yield of 95.4% at room temperature in 48 h. The process was applied to cellobiose, fructose, dihydroxyacetone, glyceraldehyde, pyruvaldehyde and cellulose hydrolysate, among which pyruvaldehyde afforded ca. 100% lactic acid yield. Product distribution changed towards glyceric acid, glycolic acid, formic acid, malonic acid and CO2, by variation of the O-2 partial pressure, which promotes the oxidation of glyceraldehyde and 1,3-dihydroxyacetone intermediates. The process developed has significant advantages over previous methods in aspects of efficiency, conditions, reactor materials and productivity.