Macrocyclic receptor 1 has been synthesised, as a racemate and as a single enantiomer, utilising a Stille coupling for the formation of the biphenyl portion and a macrolactamisation as the final step. The binding properties for the racemic and the homochiral macrocycle with amino acid and dipeptide derivatives, in CDCl 3 solution, have been investigated. In the case of racemic 1, addition of homochiral peptide substrates led to two distinct diastereomeric complexes, and the well separated signals for several protons in the 1 H NMR spectrum could be conveniently followed in titration experiments, allowing determination of both binding constants for the two diastereoisomeric complexes, and indicating that 1 is capable of enantioselective recognition. Titration of homochiral 1 with the same peptide substrates allowed the sense of the enantioselectivity to be determined, and experiments with a greater range of substrates indicated that 1 is particularly effective for the recognition of N-Cbz-balanyl-l-amino acids, the strongest binding being observed with N-Cbz-b-alanyll-alanine (À DG ass 19.9 kJ mol
À1). Notably the binding of N-Cbz-b-alanyl-llactic acid was considerably weaker (À DG ass 13.1 kJ mol À1 ), presumably due to replacement of an NH hydrogen-bond donor in the case of N-Cbz-balanyl-l-alanine with an oxygen lonepair in the case of N-Cbz-b-alanyl-llactic acid. Molecular modelling and 2 D NMR studies on the free macrocycle 1 and associated complexes did not provide conclusive evidence for the structure of the host ± guest complexes, but did serve to emphasise the flexibility of 1, which despite this flexibility, shows strong, selective binding of certain peptide guests.