In recent years, several supposedly “healthy” alternatives to cigarettes have been growing in popularity. Among these products are tobacco-free “herbal” cigarettes that market themselves as “safer”, “natural” alternatives that can help you with everything from depression to anxiety to stress.
At first sight, this safety claim would appear to make sense. After all, the most harmful part of conventional cigarettes is the nicotine in tobacco. So wouldn’t a product made with herbal ingredients be less harmful?
Here’s a look at what herbal cigarettes are, what the study found about their claims of safety, and how they are falling through the regulatory cracks in India.
What are herbal cigarettes?
Herbal cigarettes, unlike regular ones, do not use tobacco as fillers. They instead use herbs and dried flowers — such as clove, basil, mint and cinnamon — that impart different flavours.
And while conventional cigarettes use paper as wrappers, herbal cigarettes use tendu (ebony) leaves — just like bidis, India’s most widely consumed smoking product.
Herbal cigarettes are generally longer than a bidi but shorter and thinner than a cigar.
What did the study find?
The study, titled The lure of “Healthier Smoke”: Comparative physical, chemical, and oxidative potential characterization of emissions from herbal and tobacco cigarettes, was published on May 17 in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, a peer-reviewed international journal.
Alok Kumar Thakur, the study’s lead author who is currently pursuing post-doctoral research on air quality emissions at Colorado State University, told The Indian Express that several of the herbal cigarettes they tested were marketed with claims such as relieving cough, improving sleep or easing anxiety. However, studies on their emissions and toxicological impacts have been limited, he pointed out.
This study compared emissions from two of India’s highest selling tobacco brands and four popular herbal varieties containing combinations of basil, clove, cinnamon, mint, green tea, water lily and chamomile.
It found that emissions from herbal cigarettes were comparable to or exceeded those from tobacco cigarettes on nearly every metric measured.
“That finding is important because many consumers associate nicotine-free products with reduced harm,” said co-author Vishal Verma, an Associate Professor of Environmental Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
How did the study measure the impact?
The researchers combusted each cigarette (herbal and tobacco-based) inside a sealed, two-chamber rig designed to replicate human inhalation. They then funnelled these emissions into instruments and collected samples, whose oxidative potential they quantified as a proxy for toxicity.
Oxidative potential refers to the capacity of a product to generate reactive oxygen species. These are aggressive molecules that drive inflammation, lung tissue remodelling and the vascular changes behind heart disease.
The particulate matter from herbal cigarettes recorded significantly higher oxidative potential than that from tobacco cigarettes. Leaf-wrapped herbal variants turned out to be the most hazardous. Their oxidative potential was roughly 49% higher than paper-wrapped versions.
Interestingly, chemical analysis revealed that one herbal cigarette, filled with basil, had the highest lead concentration, despite being marketed as “chemical-free with 100% natural filler for a healthy lifestyle”.
The researchers also found that herbal smoke emitted sub-500-nanometer particles — less than one-hundredth the width of a human hair — at approximately 20% higher concentrations in herbal smoke than in tobacco smoke. These fine particles are increasingly linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
The team has now started experimenting on human cells to measure the impact on the body.
Aside from the health impact, the study also found that the combustion produces harmful pollutants such as particulate matter, carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons.
Prof (Dr) Harshal Ramesh Salve, Centre for Community Medicine at AIIMS Delhi, told The Indian Express that herbal cigarettes are as hazardous to health as conventional ones, especially for youngsters who are their major targets.
“From a public health aspect, all sorts of cigarettes are harmful. While tobacco cigarettes always have nicotine content, the other forms of e-cigarettes or herbal cigarettes, which are promoted as an alternative to traditional cigarettes, might develop carbon particles which are equally harmful,” he said.
What’s behind the popularity of herbal cigarettes?
Lead author Thakur, who has completed his PhD at IIT-Gandhinagar, said they found that these herbal cigarettes were getting as popular as vapes and e-cigarettes.
One of the parameters the researchers used to zero-in on the herbal cigarette brands were the number of reviews on online shopping websites. It showed that these products were easily available.
More than 100 varieties of these herbal cigarettes were available in the market, said co-author Sameer Patel, who is Assistant Professor, Discipline of Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering, IIT-Gandhinagar.
“The biggest problem is that they have placed themselves as a midway point between tobacco addiction and quitting,” he said. “They say this is a mid-way step, so you can transition to this and then stop.”
He also pointed out that statements by celebrities, who may be unaware of the ill-effects, may influence their followers into believing that these products are not harmful.
Then there is the “coolness” factor. These brands market themselves towards younger generations, pointing out how their products smell better than tobacco. “On their popularity… we are not the first ones to start talking about them. We might be the first ones to do a detailed scientific study around it,” said Patel.
The regulatory gaps
So far, owing to the limited scientific evidence on long-term health impacts, herbal cigarettes often fall into regulatory grey areas.
India’s Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003, regulates tobacco products through warning labels, advertising restrictions and public smoking rules. But products marketed as tobacco-free often fall outside these frameworks. Comparable regulatory gaps exist in several other countries.
Dr Salve pointed out: “These are promoted on online platforms without warning because either these are sold as an alternative. This makes it even worse as it bypasses the legal framework.”
The researchers emphasised that the study does not make direct epidemiological claims about disease outcomes. Instead, it focuses on measurable properties of the emitted smoke particles and their potential biological reactivity.
“Combustion, fine particles, soot, trace metals, and the wrapper around them all matter more than what is written on the box,” said co-author P S Ganesh Subramanian, who is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Washington University in St Louis.
“With the herbal cigarette category potentially attracting younger consumers and first-time smokers using wellness-oriented language, there is an urgent need to develop frameworks to regulate the marketing of tobacco alternatives,” the study urged.
So far, owing to the limited scientific evidence on long-term health impacts, herbal cigarettes often fall into regulatory grey areas. (Magnific) 
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