BACKGROUND: The Maillard reaction is a complex series of reactions between reducing sugars and amino groups. Changing any of reaction parameters would alter the reaction pathway. This study investigated the effect of xylose concentration on the molecular and particle size distribution of Maillard reaction products (MRPs) derived from peanut hydrolysate and xylose to discuss their formation mechanism. RESULTS: Molecular weight and particle size distribution analyses indicated that both peptide degradation and peptide cross-linking occurred during the Maillard reaction. Heat treatment would make the high-molecular-weight peptides degrade into low-molecular-weight peptides and free amino acids. Maillard reaction increased the molecular weight and particle sizes of products as the xylose concentration increased from 1% to 4%. CONCLUSION: The study shows that both peptide degradation and peptide cross-linking occurred during the Maillard reaction. The thermal degradation product (TDP) and MRPs had significantly different molecular size distribution, and the particle size distribution of TDPs and MRPs had similar change tendency to that of the molecular size distribution. These would provide an insight into the formation mechanism of MRPs.