A new biopolymer-non-noble metal catalyst, silica-supported chitosan-cobalt complex (SiO2-CS-Co), has been prepared by a simple method and found to be a high stereoselective catalyst for asymmetric hydration of 1-octene to (S)-(+)-2-octanol amounted to 97.8%ee when fitting conditions were selected. This catalyst was very stable and could be reused several times without any remarkable change in catalytic activity and optical selectivity. Obviously, the present work has provided a more economical alternative way for the preparation of a chiral 2-octanol. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.