Cellulose grafted to nano-magnetites was found to be an efficient biopolymer composite for catalysis of Friedel Crafts reaction between isatins and indoles, leading to selective synthesis of 3-hydroxy-3-indolylindolin-2-ones. The catalysis process is likely effected by a mass of hydroxyl groups arranged along the backbone of cellulose fibers coated on surface of the nano-sized magnetite support, where they get exposed to the adsorbed substrates. Synergistic push-pull effects, reminiscent of the soft catalysis of metal-less enzymes, via proton donating-accepting functions of the hydroxyl groups anchored on surface of the cellulose shell were invoked to explain the clean and selective bioorganocatalysis of 3-indolylindolin-2-one formation. In addition, more improvement in this selective catalytic performance was realized by employing the magnetite nano-particles coated with chitosan shell. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.