Chitosan was partially hydrolysed with 35% hydrochloric acid for 2 h at 80 degrees C and the hydrolysate stored at - 20 degrees C after dilution with water to precipitate higher molecular weight (MW) chitosan oligomers. When the hydrolysate was not diluted with water, no precipitate was formed but 7.3% chitosan oligomers were precipitated at a dilution ratio of 1.0 (ml water/ml hydrolysate). The time for precipitation was not significantly changed after storing the hydrolysate at - 20 degrees C for 1 day. In addition, the precipitation yield was not significantly influenced by the concentration of HCl used for the hydrolysis except at less than 5.0 (ml HCl/g chitosan). However, the yield of precipitated oligomers changed with partial hydrolysis time. For 0.5 and 2 h hydrolysis, 10.1 and 7.3% of the oligomers were precipitated, respectively, but only 3.1% of the oligomers were obtained after a 4 h reaction. When methanol was added to the hydrolysate, the precipitation yield increased up to 70% but the amounts of lower MW chitosan oligomers in the precipitated oligomers also increased with the increase of higher MW. The precipitated oligomers were mainly composed of pentamers and hexamers.