Huff and puff: The making and stalling of India’s herbal cigarettes market

Abhishek tried many things in his mission to quit smoking, including herbal cigarettes. But, he said, they were useless. “The main selling point of these herbal cigarettes was they were in a very attractive wooden box," he told Mint. “Apart from that, they taste like gobar [cowdung]."

He tried other methods as well and failed. Eventually, he kicked the habit a year later with the help of an app.

Another chronic smoker, former corporate lawyer Ashwin, 34, also turned to herbal cigarettes as he tried to kick the habit while struggling with a stressful job in 2015. “I bought this fancy looking wooden box of herbal cigarettes," he said. “But they tasted so disgusting that I gave them all away to a friend."

Herbal cigarettes—made without tobacco but with herbs—have been around in India for nearly a decade. They were first introduced as an ‘all natural’ method to give up smoking. Over the years, the ministry of AYUSH began formalizing the making and sale of Ayurvedic formulations documented in old texts, including those made with parts of the cannabis plant. As a result, herbal cigarettes and other related smoking and cannabis-based products gained popularity on direct-to-consumer websites operated by small-scale brands, specialized e-commerce marketplaces and now, to some extent, quick-commerce platforms. Estimates are elusive and vary wildly, but those in the industry say herbal cigarettes have become close to a ₹100-200 crore category, pivoting from a cigarette de-addiction solution to the foundation of an alternative, Ayurvedic, wellness-focused lifestyle.

So, how did herbal cigarettes endure even after being rejected by hardcore smokers? And can they actually make Ayurveda relatable to Gen-Z Indians obsessed with wellness?

Smoking for health

According to government-recognized ancient texts, Ayurveda recommends ‘dhumapana’ or inhalation of smoke medicated with a recommended formulation of herbs to heal and maintain respiratory health and, in many cases, all of the body and mind. The Charaka Samhita—Ayurveda’s primary treatise—recommends dhumapana as part of a healthy individual’s daily regimen and as treatment and even prevention for a variety of symptoms ranging from cough and cold, to heaviness in the head, a variety of secretions from the body, and even hair loss. The book has very precise instructions on how dhumapana must be administered—inhaled from the nose and exhaled from the mouth, with details on the size of the medicated wick whose smoke one is inhaling, and even the state of mind one must be in before inhaling.

It is this principle of smoking that first led a clutch of small brands to think of making herbal cigarettes and have them registered as ayurvedic medicines with the ministry of AYUSH. Already, in the 2010s, ‘naturals’ and Ayurvedic products were on the rise, in part driven by the fierce expansion of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved. One such early entrant into the business was Organic Smokes, perhaps the first brand of herbal cigarettes most consumers in India tried out when the category was new.

Organic Smokes’ co-founder Piyush Chhabra first thought about herbal cigarettes about a decade ago, right after he graduated college. His family already ran distributorships of Ayurvedic and herbal products in Sonipat, Haryana, and in New Delhi’s Chandni Chowk, but Chhabra wanted to do something different. He co-founded Organic Smokes with his brothers Gaurav and Nitin.

“I used to see products of brands like Dabur, Baidyanath and then Organic India, which had just started at that time," he told Mint in an interview. “I tried rolling a cigarette with green tea and smoked it, and I realized this could sell. But I didn’t want to run this operation under my dad’s business because it had a very high reputation. So, I decided to start up instead."

Chhabra says he was early to the category; at the time, there were no clear licences for herbal cigarettes under the ministry of AYUSH, which had been set up in November 2014. Besides, procurement and sale of cannabis was regulated but there was little clarity on how a private company may procure it to make Ayurvedic prescription medicines, including those that deviate from standard Ayurvedic formulations found in ancient texts. Only in 2018 did the ministry publish the first edition of its ‘General Guidelines For Drug Development of Ayurvedic Formulations’, which included all the elements of an alternative drug system—classification of Ayurvedic drugs, a list of plant parts used in them as well as parameters for developing, extracting and testing these drugs.

Chhabra started out with just one herbal cigarette and began hitting trade fairs and even made an appearance on the Shark Tank India reality show. “When we first launched, we did ₹1 lakh in sales in a single day," Chhabra said. But since then, growth has been challenging. “The challenge is that we started something in a category that did not exist at all."

Chhabra did not share revenue figures for his company but said 2025 was a difficult year; over time, he moved sales almost entirely to his own direct-to-consumer website, letting go of listings on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon where commissions can be extremely high. Per research firm Tracxn, Organic Smokes’ parent, Mea Ame Pvt. Ltd, posted revenue of just over ₹3 crore in fiscal year 2024 (FY24) with a profit after tax of around ₹7 lakh.

Chhabra was the first mover, but others soon followed, including third-party manufacturers who ventured into making their own brands during the pandemic years. Some older manufacturers have ditched export markets for the newer domestic opportunity.

One such brand is Nirdosh, made by Ahmedabad-based Maans Products India.

“We began our journey in herbal-cigarette manufacturing in 1975, when we introduced what we describe as the world’s first herbal cigarette," Prasad Bhavsar, director of Maans Products India, which owns the brand Nirdosh cigarettes, said. “After our initial success, several well-known cigarette companies attempted to acquire us in an effort to remove our products from the market and limit competition in the tobacco segment. We declined all such proposals, and today we continue as an independent, family-run business," he claimed.

Nirdosh now sells herbal cigarettes, cigars, beedis and herbal smoking mixtures, for a total of 40 products online on its own website, e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, and Ayurveda-focused specialized e-retailers. Like Organic Smokes, Nirdosh straddles the line between offering cigarette smokers a path to quitting and a daily product offering the benefits of Ayurveda. “All our products are made without tobacco or nicotine, and we position them as alternatives for smokers seeking non-tobacco options," Bhavsar said.

The cannabis effect

But if herbal cigarettes don’t work on those serious about quitting tobacco smoke, what are they good for?

One answer lay in bhang, ganja and charas, all different forms of the cannabis plant, a recognized ingredient in the Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems of traditional medicine. Not all cannabis-based products are intoxicating, but these kinds of herbal cigarettes (and related goods) attract a different customer base, including those looking to get high and others seeking relief for pain or anxiety and depression.

Herbal cigarettes made with parts of the cannabis plant or infused with its psychoactive component, called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), are now already 20-30% of the total market for herbal cigarettes, according to Srijan Sharma, co-founder of specialized e-commerce platform ItsHemp. They are available only on prescription, from an Ayurvedic practitioner.

“Most consumers use herbal smokes as a mixer for cannabis products," Sharma told Mint in an interview. “Otherwise, there are very few takers for herbal cigarettes because nicotine is a serious addiction and most smokers do not want to quit cigarettes. Most people are looking for other Ayurvedic wellness products, including those made from cannabis."

That is how Delhi-based The Trost found success online, selling cannabis-infused herbal cigarettes, along with other cannabis-based products such as gummies and cannabidiol (CBD) oil for pain relief. Founder Harshal Goel started the company in 2020 after exiting a similar venture in Switzerland to return home.

“I wanted to replicate what we had built in Switzerland for Indian customers," Goel said. “We took two years just to get all the licences. But this market [for herbal cigarettes] is still fairly small."

For instance, The Trost’s cannabis cigarettes aren’t psychoactive, and are designed to calm the user after a long day rather than provide a high. “Our customers use it as a lifestyle product and to curb their tobacco usage," Goel explained. The trend to take a smoke break during work is now shifting away from tobacco to cannabis cigarettes."

Although The Trost’s cigarettes do not get a smoker high, they do contain cannabis, making them a prescription-only product and hampering the brand’s ability to sell them in convenience stores and e-commerce or quick commerce platforms.

The Trost’s parent firm last reported financials for FY24—it made nearly ₹66 lakh in annual revenue with losses of over ₹24 lakh that year. This year, it has begun opening its own stores, starting with one in Bengaluru’s Indiranagar area in November.

Anyone can get a prescription for Ayurvedic cannabis products from an AYUSH doctor, or even from doctors empanelled with brands such as The Trost. But the ministry of AYUSH has been tightening rules for how AYUSH practitioners handle requests to prescribe cannabis-based products.

Last year, the ministry set up an inter-ministerial committee to crack down on misuse. In July 2025, the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine issued an advisory warning Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani practitioners not to promote themselves as specialists of cannabis and its derivatives. A month later, it issued another advisory to states and union territories, asking them to crack down on any ‘misleading’ advertisements for Ayurvedic products that contain cannabis.

The other drawback to the business of cannabis-based products is that manufacturers need an excise department license to procure cannabis from the government. These licences are renewed annually and come with limits to how much cannabis one can buy in a year; the manufacturer must also file detailed reports on how the material procured was used. Each state has its own rules on how licences are issued and what reports the maker of cannabis-based medicine must file and with which government departments.

Brands that Mint spoke to say the ministry of AYUSH is also tightening rules for licences for Ayurvedic medicines that contain cannabis. Ordinarily, a manufacturer can license products as Ayurvedic medicines from the AYUSH department of the state where the business is located. Now, however, the ministry intends to license cannabis-based Ayurvedic formulations only via the central government, The Trost’s Goel and Organic Smokes’ Chhabra told Mint.

An email seeking comments from the ministry of AYUSH remained unanswered.

“Under these new regulations, getting into cannabis medicines will be harder," Goel said. Besides, manufacturers must test all products that deviate from a traditional Ayurvedic formulation in clinical trials, which can cost as much as ₹10 lakh per SKU (stock-keeping unit) to conduct, he said. “For a startup, getting cannabis-based products licensed will get harder. Not more than 10-20 brands will exist in this herbal cigarettes business then, just like in tobacco cigarettes."

Shifting sands

Brands are now trying other ways to take dhumapana to the masses. Some are listing smoking blends and rolling paper for cigarettes on quick-commerce platforms.

Some are trying a new format altogether. Chhabra has been selling “medical atomisers," under Organic Smokes for the last two years. While India banned the production and sale of vapes in 2019, that law exempts any product registered under India’s Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Chhabra says his atomisers are medical devices, do not contain nicotine or cannabis, and are an innovation on the Ayurvedic practice of dhumapana. However, earlier this year, his factory making the device in Sonipat was raided by customs officials, he told Mint.

Meanwhile, regular tobacco cigarettes are about to become more expensive. Starting 1 February, all tobacco products, including cigarettes will be subject to 40% goods and services tax along with excise duty and a cess.

But in all this, the crucial question is: does dhumapana really work? Despite what Ayurvedic texts say, medical doctors do not recommend smoking anything at all.

“In the case of herbal cigarettes, we would still have to burn them, which would generate toxic waste such as tar, carbon monoxide, irritants, particulate matter, polycyclic aromatic compounds (like those observed with nicotine), which could cause similar damage to the respiratory tract," Dr Amit Kumar Mandal, senior director, pulmonology and critical care, at Paras Hospital, Panchkula, said.

There’s a lag between consumption and when the effects of such ‘alternatives’ become evident—just as nicotine cigarettes take time to cause symptoms and show signs on pulmonary function tests or imaging (radiology), the pulmonologist added. “Hence, we haven’t yet seen such patients in our clinics. That is why it may seem for the time being that those using e-cigarettes or herbal cigarettes, from younger demographics, are better off."