Technological monitoring of cyclodextrin – World panorama

•Global landscape by technological monitoring of cyclodextrin.•Both scientific publications and published patent applications from 1981 to 2011 used.•Major applicants, technological application areas and trends analyzed.

This paper aims at establishing a global landscape by means of the technological monitoring of cyclodextrin. In order to achieve this objective, the databases of the Web of Science were used for the survey of the scientific literature and the databases of the patents for the survey of the filings of patent applications. The data were obtained using suitable keywords. The present study has examined the publications and the patent applications published from 1981 to 2011. This has allowed us to assess, among other aspects, the main inventors, depositors and the country of the depositors, the main International Patent Classifications, the year of the publication, the country of the publication, as well as discuss the importance of patents as a means of encouraging technological innovation of cyclodextrin technologies.