Smoking mixture

Claim 1

A smoking mixture in fabricated form comprising a. as smoke producing fuel a solid combustible tobacco substitute material which material is non-toxic on pyrolysis and is selected from the group consisting of carbohydrates selected from the group consisting of cellulose, sucrose, glucose or an alginate and aldol condensation products prepared by acid- or base- catalysed condensation of a compound of the formula R.sup.1 COCH.sub.2.CH.sub.2 COR.sup.2 or a precursor thereof wherein R 1 and R 2 which may be the same or different each represents a hydrogen atom or an alkyl, hydroxyalkyl or formyl group; b. a harmless filler, and c. sufficient binder to enable the mixture to be fabricated, said filler being harmless on pyrolysis and present in a proportion of 40 to 65% by weight of the mixture and being selected from salts wherein the anion comprises formate, oxalate, citrate, tartrate, silicate, carbonate, chloride, sulphate, phosphate, borate, oxide, dioxide or aluminate and the cation comprises sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron or titanium, the combination of cations and anions in the filler being selected to impart a burning rate correlated to a puff number of 8-12 of a machine-made standard Class B British cigarette containing 1.1 g tobacco, where each puff is of 25 ml volume in two seconds, followed by a 58 second rest or smouldering period and where the 70 mm cigarette is smoked to a butt length of 20 mm.