Surfactants based on sugars are very important for extraction of proteins. We describe here a new series of surfactants, the N-acetyl-N-alkyllactosylamines, easily prepared in a two-stage route starting from unprotected lactose. These new compounds have comparable surfactant activity to existing sugar-based homologs currently employed in the extraction of proteins from biological samples. Moreover, a complete structural analysis of these new nonionic amphiphiles by H-1 and C-13 NMR showed beta anomeric conformation suitable for chiral induction in micelles.