Contamination of chitin oligosaccharides in a laminarioligosaccharide preparation can cause a confused interpretation of its elicitor activity.

Chitinase treatment of a commercial laminarioligosaccharide preparation from a mushroom resulted in a loss of previously reported elicitor activity in rice cells, indicating that the activity was attributable not to the laminarioligosaccharide but rather to the contaminating chitin fragments. This suggests that the elicitor activity of laminarioligosacchraides from such sources containing chitinaceous substances should be carefully interpreted.