The development of innovative methods for cleaning contaminated soils has emerged as a significant environmental priority. Herein, are investigated the effectiveness of cyclodextrin (CD) to solubilize and to extract organic pollutants from soils. The interactions in the cyclodextrin/pollutant/soil system have been studied "step by step" using two kinds of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), naphthalene (Nap) and phenanthrene (Phe), cyclodextrins and soils. Inclusion complex formation of PAH with beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) and hydroxypropyl-p-cyclodextrin (HPCD) has been investigated and was proposed as a way to facilitate the pollutant removal from soil. Little effect of ionic strength was observed on CD complex formation for both compounds. The solubility of PAH in 50gL(-1) of HPCD was enhanced 20-and 90-fold for naphthalene and phenanthrene, respectively. Batch experiments were performed to study the adsorption-desorption of two PAH on two soils and the influence of CDs over these processes. These experiments were also conducted with a mixture of two PAH. The batch desorption results indicate that removal capacity of HPCD was higher than that of beta-CD. Phenanthrene was strongly sorbed on soils, this led to low desorption rates compared to that of naphthalene, whatever the extracting agent used. When HPCD solution was used as a flushing agent, 80% of naphthalene and 64% of phenanthrene recovery from soil were observed. For both compounds, the slowest desorption rate was found for the soil that had the greatest content of organic matter. CD sorption on soils, was relatively low and depended on soil type. The soil organic matter (SOM) could favor the retention of both CD and pollutant involving the extraction rate to be decreased. A competitive hydrophobic interactions of pollutant between SOM and CD molecules, and co-sorption were expected to be the mechanism for the inhibited desorption. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.