Acid zeolites as catalysts offer unique achievements in the carbohydrate field allowing regio- and stereocontrolled reactions, mainly related to their shape-selective properties. Moreover, these materials are environmentally safe and easy to handle, contributing to clean and sustainable procedures in carbohydrate transformations. The scope of this review is to summarize the most significant applications of these heterogeneous catalysts in carbohydrate chemistry, notably in mediating key transformations such as glycosylation, sugar protection and deprotection, hydrolysis and dehydration, highlighting the exciting results that the use of zeolites may provide. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.