Thirteen carbon materials comprising commercial activated carbons and labmade materials (hydrochars and activated carbons) were assayed as enrichment phase in bar adsorptive microextration to monitor trace levels of ten common pharmaceutical compounds (PhCs) in environmental water matrices, 2/40 including surface water, sea water, tap water and wastewater. Polar and nonpolar pharmaceuticals were selectedsulfamethoxazole, triclosan, carbamazepine, diclofenac, mefenamic acid, 17α-ethinylestradiol, 17β-estradiol, estrone, gemfibrozil and clofibric acidas model compounds to cover distinct therapeutic classes. Despite having a less-developed porosity, data showed that "in-house" prepared nanoporous hydrochars obtained from carbohydrates at low temperature (e.g., 180 ºC) in the presence of an eutectic salt mixture compete with the best commercial activated carbons for this particular application. The combination of a micro and mesopore network with a rich oxygen-based surface chemistry yielding an acidic nature allowed these hydrochars to present the best overall recoveries (between 20.9 to 82.4 %) for the simultaneous determination of the ten target PhCs with very distinct chemical properties, by high performance liquid chromatography-diode array detection (HPLC-DAD).