4. Conclusions
Based on a kinetic study of acid hydrolysis, we demonstrated that chitosan can be quantitatively hydrolyzed into glucosamine in 6 h with either 10 M HCl at 105 ◦C, or 12 M HCl at 90 ◦C. Chitosan content is calculated based on the glucosamine content in the hydrolysate. Using derivatization and HPLC, the current method is more selective than colorimetric methods. The simplicity of the method makes it suitable for routine quantitative analysis of chitosan in both plain materials and dietary supplement formulations.