At room temperature, it is a white powder, odorless, tasteless. It has a strong ability of water absorption. It is highly soluble in water to become a solution with high viscosity. It become unstable upon higher temperatures or acidic condition, primarily being deacetylated or being degraded into monosaccharide or smaller molecular-weight polysaccharide. It is not soluble in organic solvent like ethanol, acetone and ether. Its salt is quite stable to heat without being destroyed when heated to 80 °C.

Chondroitin sulfate is a mixture of acid mucopolysaccharides extracted from the cartilage of pigs, cattle, chicken, and shark cartilage. According to their differences in chemical composition and structure, it is divided into A, B, C, D, E, F, H, etc. It mainly contains mucopolysaccharides such as chondroitin sulfate A and chondroitin sulfate C. Both chondroitin sulfate A and C contain D-glucuronic acid and 2-hydroperoxy group-deoxy-D-galactose, and contain equal amounts of acetyl and sulfuric acid residue. The only difference between them is the different position of sulfuric acid ester on the hexosamine residues. Chondroitin sulfate A can enhance the activity of lipase, causing the decomposition of triglyceride in chylomicron so that the blood will become clean due to the decrease of chylomicrons. It has anticoagulant and antithrombotic effect, and thus is clinically used for the treatment of coronary artery disease, elevated blood lipids and cholesterol, angina, neuralgia, myocardial ischemia and myocardial infarction embolism. It can also be used for prevention and treatment of hearing disorders and migraine caused by streptomycin, neuropathic pain, elderly pain of shoulder, backache, arthritis and hepatitis and skin cosmetics. It is reported that chondroitin sulfate can also be effective on improving and repairing of articular cartilage, synovium, keep the lubrication between the joints cartilages and making it elastic, alleviating joint pain.