Abstract Resorcinarene octamethyl ethers, bearing carboalkyloxy groups in the side chains, have been shown to interact with Fe III in organic media. 1 H-NMR studies, carried out using Ga III instead of Fe III, suggest that these systems have two active sites of interaction, the first located at the aromatic moiet and the other in the vicinity of the carbonyl groups. As a confirmation of this, resorcinarenes without carbonyl groups in the side chains have been ...