Chitin has been extracted from six different local sources in Egypt. The obtained chitin was converted into the more useful soluble chitosan by steeping into solutions of NaOH of various concentrations and for extended periods of time, then the alkali chitin was heated in an auto clave which dramatically reduced the time of deacetylation. Chitin from squid pens did not require steeping in sodium hydroxide solution and showed much higher reactivity towards deacetylation in the autoclave that even after 15 min of heating a degree of deacetylation of 90% was achieved. The obtained chitin and chitosan were characterized by spectral analysis, X-ray diffraction and thermo gravimetric analysis. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.