Lactic acid is low molecular weight organic acid wh ich produced mainly by fermentation using lactic ac id bacteria or synthetically. For many years this acid is used in many food and chemical industries with wide rang e of applications. Nowadays, lactic acid is also used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries based on it s functional properties as. This alpha hydroxyl acid plays also several and major roles in many biochemical pathway s. In addition, in recent years more attention was given to lactic acid based on its use for the production of polylactic acid (PLA) which nowadays finds many industrial and medical applications as safe, biocompatible, and biodegradable polymer. In this review is designed t o give more focus on market growth of this importan t organic acid and to provide an overview on the recent appli cations of lactic acid in both medical and pharmace utical industries.