Guest inclusion by native cyclodextrins in solid state and solutions: A review

In many industrial applications, preparation of cyclodextrin (CD) inclusion complexes with drugs, food additives, dyes and components of essence oils is performed in solid mixtures, slurries or paste-like systems having lack of water to dissolve cyclodextrin and guest completely. Such systems need a different description than supplied by classical analysis of CD complexation in aqueous solutions. The main feature of solid-state guest inclusion is the phase transition from solid CD to solid inclusion compound. This implies a complex interplay between a size exclusion effect for guest inclusion, a cooperative activation of this process by the third component such as water or organic compound and competition of guest and water for the space inside CD crystal lattice. The present review summarizes the current state of research of guest inclusion by native CDs in solid state and compares the driving forces of this process and its structure-property relationships with those of complexation in aqueous solutions. For an adequate comparison, the latter process was analyzed in thermodynamic activity scale, which allowed to separate hydrophobic effect and such important factors of complex stability as guest molecular shape and “high-energy” water.