The purified xylanase from Bacillus pumilus TX703 was modified with various chemical modifiers to determine the active sites of the enzyme. Treatment of the enzyme with group-specific reagents such as carbodiimide or N-bromosuccinimide resulted in complete loss of enzyme activity. These results assumed that these reagents reacted with glutamic acid or aspartic acid and tryptophan residues located at or near the active site. In each case, inactivation was performed by pseudo first-order kinetics. Inhibition of enzyme activity by carbodiimide and W-bromosuccinimide showed non-competitive and competitive inhibition type, respectively. Addition of xylan to the enzyme solution containing N-bromosuccinimide prevented the inactivation, indicating the presence of tryptophan at the substrate binding site. Analysis of kinetics for inactivation showed that the loss of enzyme activity was due to modification of two glutamic acid or aspartic acid residues and single tryptophan residue.