A simple solid acid catalyst γ-AlOOH was employed to synthesize 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) from glucose in the dimethyl sulfoxide. Various reaction parameters, such as catalyst loading, temperature, reaction duration and solvent, were investigated. A high HMF yield of 61.24 % was obtained at the mild reaction condition of 130 °C for 3 h. More importantly, the catalyst γ-AlOOH could be reused for several times without the loss of its significant catalytic activities. After five reaction runs, a HMF yield about 57.23 % was obtained. In addition, the results demonstrated that the γ-AlOOH also had high catalytic activities on the degradation of other polysaccharides, like Maltose, Sucrose and Cellulose, into HMF using ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, DMSO and a small amount of water as the reaction solvents. For instance, a high HMF yield of 50.26 % was obtained at 170 °C for 2.5 h on the decomposition of Cellulose.