As part of continuing efforts to develop low-cost pharmaceutical grade cellulose, α-cellulose (MC) was extracted from an agricultural waste (de-grained maize cob) and characterized as a tablet diluent using a commercial brand of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and a mixture of lactose and starch (LS) as reference standards. The α-cellulose met the pharmacopoeial specifications (for Powdered Cellulose B.P.), including pH - 6.5 ± 0.5; loss on drying - 6.0%; residue on ignition - 0.03%; and water-soluble substances - 0.9%. Presence of organic impurities and starch was not found. MC compared well with MCC and LS in terms of bulk density (0.36g/cm3) and true density (1.59g/cm3). MC, MCC and LS were individually evaluated as tablet diluents for some commonly used drugs, namely, folic acid, chloroquine and vitamin B complex. The tablets were prepared by pre-compression. Based on the tablet parameters examined, (including tensile strength, disintegration time and dissolution data), MC-based tablets compared well with MCC- and LS-based tablets. MC formulations were highly compressible (no binding agent was needed) and yielded folic acid and vitamin B complex tablets that were self-lubricating (no lubricant was needed). However, folic acid-MC and folic acid-MCC tablets, unlike folic-LS tablets, failed to disintegrate within 15 min (BP limit). Chloroquine tablets produced with the three diluents passed all the pharmacopoeial tests (BP) but a lubricant was included in the formulations to eliminate sticking. The findings from this work confirm the tablet diluent-binder potentials of α-cellulose derived from maize cob in tablet produced by the pre-compression method.