Chitosan film was prepared by the casting method using chitosan dissolved in acetic acid solution, then immersed in an alkaline solution, washed well with distilled water and dried. To adsorb gold ions, the dried film was immersed in 0.1 M NaCl solution containing 1,000 ppm of gold. The film with adsorbed gold ions was then dried, and gold was desorbed using various aqueous solutions containing a reductant. The gold ions were desorbed from the chitosan film as solid nanoparticles of gold. The morphology of the particles depended on the kind of reductant and reduction time but was independent of the concentration of reductant.