The experiment was designed to investigate the sustained release dosage form of silymarin (SL) from chitosan (CS) carrier. Solid dispersed system was prepared by mixing the drug with chitosan. This solid dispersed system was cross-linked by glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and butylaldehyde, respectively. The dissolution rates of these preparations were compared with each other in vitro. The silymarin was mixed with anionic alginate gel and bead was prepared by dropping this mixture to cationic chitosan solution including calcium chloride. Chitosan encapsulated alginate bead after drying in the oven was investigated for the dissolution rate. The dissolution rate of SL-CS mixture was delayed with increase in the amounts of CS and the concentration of aldehyde. The effect on the delay of dissolution rate was in the increasing order of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, acetaldehyde, butylaldehyde. The dissolution rate of chitosan encapsulated alginate bead was parallel with the concentration of chitosan in diluted hydrochloric acid solution and delayed with increase in the concentration of chitosan in phosphate buffer solution.