It has been reported that oligomers of lower
molecular weight than that of chitosan exhibit better
biological activities than chitosan. Oligomers
of chitosan like chitooligosaccharide could be easily
prepared by acidic or by enzymatic partial hydrolysis
of chitosan (Kim et al., 2003). It is also an
important starting material for synthesizing biologically
active oligosaccharide derivatives (Qin et
al., 2006).