Synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy (SFS) was directly applied to rapidly quantify selected polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs: benzo[a]pyrene and pyrene) in aqueous hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPCD) soil extract solutions from a variety of aged contaminated soils containing four different PAHs. The method was optimized and validated. The results show that SFS can be used to analyse benzo[a]pyrene and pyrene in HPCD based soil extracts with high sensitivity and selectivity. The linear calibration ranges were 4.0 x 10(-6)-1.0 x 10(-3) mM for benzo[a]pyrene and 6.0 x 10(-6)- 1.2 x 10(-3) mM for pyrenein 10 mM HPCD aqueous solution alone. The detection limits according to the error propagation theory for benzo[a]pyrene and pyrene were 3.9 x 10(-6) and 5.4 x 10(-6) mM, respectively. A good agreement between SFS and HPLC was reached for both determinations of PAHs in HPCD alone and in soil HPCD extracts. Hence, SFS is a potential means to simplify the present non-exhaustive hydroxypropyl-beta-cyclodextrin (HPCD)-based extraction technique for the evaluation of PAH bioavailability in soil. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}