The structural characterization of a (3-cyclodextrin monosubstituted with the peptide cyclo(L-HiS-L-Leu) is reported. This work provides an x-ray example of a covalently bound group that folds In such a way that the terminal apolar side chain is retained in the hydrophobic interior of the cone-shaped cyclodextrin cavity. 6-Deoxy-6-cycldo(L-histldyl-Lleucyl)-ig-cydodextrin crystallizes in the space group P 1 with cell dimensions a = 14.728 (8) Cyclodextrins (CDs) represent an interesting class of cyclic oligosaccharides constituted by 6-12 D-glucopyranosyl units, linked by a(1-4)-glycosidic bonds (1, 2). Among the known CDs, 1-CD (or cycloheptaamylose) is one of the most widely investigated so far. Crystallographic studies (3-5) have established that CDs are truncated cone-shaped cyclic molecules with glucose units in the 4C1 chair conformation. Because of the presence of the cavity and of primary hydroxyl groups, these cycloamyloses have been used for building molecular models with peculiar properties (6, 7). Furthermore, it has been shown that cyclo(L-histidyl-L-prolyl), a dipeptide with hormonal and neurotropic activity (8-13), inhibits the (Fe+ ascorbic acid)-induced peroxidation of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum membrane lipids (14). Bavykina et al. (15) recently published the synthesis of diketopiperazines (DKPs) related to cyclo(L-histidyl-L-prolyl) and attributed the biological behavior ofthis molecule to the antioxidant activity ofthe cyclodipeptide. This suggests that DKP derivatives may be used as antiinflammatory agents (16)(17)(18)(19). In this context, we report here an example of structural characterization by x-ray diffraction analysis of a 13-CD monosubstituted with a potentially bioactive cyclic dipeptide-namely, 6-deoxy-6-cyclo(Lhistidyl-L-leucyl)-1-CD (cHL-,1CD) (Fig.