The colorimetric method of Reissig et al. for the estimation of N-acetylamino sugars, is often used as a specific method for the quantification of the N-acetyl-D-glucosamine. Although this assay is more sensitive to the monomer, it recognizes all soluble N-acetyl-D-glucosamine oligomers. This result is very important because this method is extensively used in biology for the estimation of chitinolytic activity.