In this work, a review of the Brazilian scientific production in the past 10 years in the field of supercritical fluid is presented. The historical facts associated with the previous edition of the Brazilian Meeting on Supercritical Fluids are discussed. Because of the importance of the other South America countries contribution to the filed, a summary of the research published in the past 5 years by all South America countries is also presented. In the past 5 years (1999-2003) 82 papers from South American countries were published in journals indexed in the Web of Science data base. Of these, 26 papers were related to the use of supercritical fluids as an analytical tool. Supercritical extraction from a variety of vegetable raw material contributed with 38 papers and the petroleum industry added 2 papers to the field. Reactions contributed with 3 publications while thermodynamics and fundamental studies were responsible for 13 publications. The Brazilian contribution represented 53-84% of the publications in the above areas. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.