A tremendous growth in the field of carbon nanomaterials has led to the emergence of carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, mesoporous carbon and more recently graphene. Some of these materials have found applications in electronics, sensors, catalysis, drug delivery, composites, and so forth. The high temperatures and hydrocarbon precursors involved in their synthesis usually yield highly inert graphitic surfaces. As some of the applications require functionalization of their inert graphitic surface with groups like -COOH, -OH, and -NH2, treatment of these materials in oxidizing agents and concentrated acids become inevitable. More recent works have involved using precursors like carbohydrates to produce carbon nanostructures rich in functional groups in a single-step under hydrothermal conditions. These carbon nanostructures have already found many applications in composites, drug delivery, materials synthesis, and Li ion batteries. The review aims to highlight some of the recent developments in the application of carbohydrate derived carbon nanostructures and also provide an outlook of their future prospects. © 2010 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH&Co. KGaA, Weinheim.