Effect of organic solvents treatment on structure of chitin and its enzymatic hydrolysis

•A cocktail of chitinolytic enzymes was developed to efficiently produce GlcNAc from chitin.•Chitin pretreated by three organic solvents exhibited 4.90–8.21-fold hydrolysis efficiency better than raw chitin.•The alter chitin structure without deacetylation resulted in the increased hydrolysis efficiency.•GlcNAc with a purity of 96% were obtained from organic solvent pretreated chitins.