The immobilisation of water-soluble metallophthalocyanine complexes on chitosan aerogel microspheres affords new bifunctional catalysts which have been used for the aerobic oxidation of beta-isophorone. Chitosan is both the support of the metal complex and the organic base necessary for the reaction. These new materials have been characterized by nitrogen adsorption/desorption, scanning electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance UV-vis and N-15 NMR spectroscopies. The influence of the reaction parameters on the efficiency of heterogeneous oxidation of beta-isophorone, an important substrate for the preparation of flavour and fragrance fine chemicals has been studied. Combination of basic and oxidation sites in one solid material provided a more efficient heterogeneous clean oxidation of beta-isophorone by O-2 without any waste. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.