Cellulose has been directly converted into environmentally friendly alkyl glycoside surfactants in a one pot transformation. By working in ionic liquid media with Amberlyst 15Dry (A15) as catalyst and coupling the rate of cellulose hydrolysis and the rate of glycosidation of the monosaccharides formed with C(4) to C(8) alcohols, it was possible to obtain 82% mass yield of octyl-alpha,beta-glucoside plus octyl-alpha,beta-xyloside.