Thermodynamic parameters for complexation of polyvalent cyclodextrin (CD) cation and anion with oppositely charged guests have been determined in D2O containing 0.02 M NaCl by means of 1H-NMR spectroscopy. Protonated heptakis(6-amino-6-deoxy)-beta-CD (per-NH3+-beta-CD) forms stable inclusion complexes with monovalent guest anions. The enthalpy (deltaH) and entropy changes (deltaS) for complexation of per-NH3+-beta-CD with p-methylbenzoate anion (p-CH3-Ph-CO2-) are 3.8 +/- 0.7 kJ mol(-1) and 88.6 +/- 2.2 J mol(-1) K(-1), respectively. The deltaH and deltaS values for the native beta-CD-p-CH3-Ph-CO2- system are -8.6 +/- 0.1 kJ mol(-1) and 15.3 +/- 0.7 J mol(-1) K(-1), respectively. The thermodynamic parameters clearly indicate that dehydration from both the host and guest ions accounts for the entropic gain in inclusion process of p-CH3-Ph-CO2- into the per-NH3+-beta-CD cavity. The fact that the neutral guests such as 2,6-dihydroxynaphthalene and p-methylbenzyl alcohol hardly form the complexes with per-NH3+-beta-CD exhibits that van der Waals and/or hydrophobic interactions do not cause the complexation of the polyvalent CD cation with the monovalent anion. The acetate anion is not included into the per-NH3+-beta-CD cavity, while the butanoate and hexanoate anions form the inclusion complexes. The complexation of the alkanoate anions is entropically dominated. Judging from these results, it may be concluded that Coulomb interactions cooperated with inclusion are required for realizing the large entropic gain due to extended dehydration. Entropically favorable complexation was also observed for the anionic CD-cationic guest system. The present study might present a general mechanism for ion pairing in water.