Book excerpt: This book contains the best known approaches for preparing the main types of glycosides in a short and comprehensive study. It also includes synthetic pathways of challenging glycosides known as antiviral or antineoplasic drugs, or synthetic substrates used for enzymatic detection including those used as substrates for detection of gene markers in plant biotechnology. Special attention is made on the structural characterization, providing the basic tools for the structural assignment through NMR, X-Ray and mass spectra techniques. Some of the chapters cover strategies for preparation of antiviral and antineoplasic drugs included in a drug design course.