We report a simple "one pot" single step method to synthesize sulfoalkyl ether -cyclodextrin (-CD) derivatives in aqueous solution, which avoids the limitations associated with commonly used organic synthesis of such derivatives including multi-step reactions, use of expensive, toxic, and often environmentally hazardous organic solvents and/or reagents. Using this method, we obtained sulfopropyl and sulfobutyl ethyl -CDs. We characterized these two derivatives and evaluated their ability to enhance solubility of fluconazole, a commonly used antifungal drug with poor water solubility. Experimental results indicate that these derivatives are structurally analogous to some of the commercially available -CD derivatives. More importantly, when they formed supramolecular inclusion complexes with fluconazole, they demonstrated similar, if not better, capacity to enhance fluconazole solubility compared with commercially available -CD derivatives, suggesting that the simple "one pot" single step synthesis may provide an effective alternative approach to produce large quantity of -CD derivatives as pharmaceutical biomaterials for medicinal applications.-cyclodextrin derivatives, "one pot" synthesis, aqueous solution, solubility enhancer, fluconazole, supramolecular inclusion complex Enzymatic degradation of one of the most widely used biomaterials, starch, results in cyclic oligosaccharides that are formed with D-glucopyranose units and generally known as cyclodextrins (CDs). Depending on the number of D-glucopyranose units that form the molecule, there are -CD, -CD, -CD, and so on (with 6, 7, 8 or more D-glucopyranose units, respectively). Among them -CD is the most widely used for reasons such as wide availability and preferred cavity dimensions, providing more than 95% of today's total supply [1,2] .One of the striking features of CDs is their molecular structure that has a hydrophilic outer surface and a somewhat lipophilic central cavity, and geometrically resembles a truncated conical shape (torus) [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] . This unique structure allows many poorly soluble lipophilic complexes such as drug molecules to bind to them and form water soluble inclusion complexes. Thus, CDs have recently been recognized as useful supramolecular pharmaceutical biomaterials, and -CD is especially so due to its relatively low price [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] . However, natural -CD itself, like other CDs, is poorly soluble in water at room temperature, which is a severe limitation for its wide use in pharmaceutics [4,7,9,10] . Therefore, in order to achieve better water solubility and greater bioavailability, functional groups such as alkyl-, hydroxyalkyl-, carboxyalkyl-, amino-, glucosyl-, sulfoalkyl-, were added to the dextrin molecules chemically or enzymatically, which results in various -CD derivatives [1,5,9,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] . Among these derivatives, sulfoalkyl ether -CDs are highly water soluble and low toxic due to the anionic nature of the substituents, and thu...