Carbohydrate Chemistry is a part of organic chemistry with its own entity since the beginning of the twentieth century, due to the chemical, biological (initially as energy reserve), and industrial (food and paper industries) importance of these substances. Late in the second half of the twentieth century, two important developments have boosted Carbohydrate Chemistry as one of the areas with a higher development in organic chemistry today. The first was the discovery of the important and varied biological activities of carbohydrates and their derivatives, which led to a new interdisciplinary branch of science that has been called glycobiology, which includes molecular recognition phenomena and biological and pharmacological properties, often associated with inhibition of enzymatic processes. The second development was the awareness of the synthetic and stereochemical potential of carbohydrates, which are the most abundant, versatile and inexpensive natural source of chirality available. The polyfunctionality of carbohydrates, the large number of stereochemical possibilities and their particular reactivity, especially at the anomeric carbon, are a challenge for the development of new synthetic processes where carbohydrates are used as raw materials, key chiral intermediates, and chiral auxiliaries.

Science in Spain has nurtured these developments and there are now a considerable number of research groups in many regions of the country working on different aspects of carbohydrate chemistry, which led to the creation in 1991 of the Specialist Carbohydrate Group within the Spanish Royal Society of Chemistry. Historically, a number of Spanish groups have been involved in the field at various universities and CSIC research centers, since Profesor Francisco García González pioneered this branch of science in Spain.