A directly compressed tablet containing as a binder-disintegrant ingredient, a partially cold-water soluble, cold-water swelling starch material derived from compacted granular starch, e.g. compacted native corn starch. The compacted granular starch is a superficially dry, free-flowing powder in which the starch is in the form of a mixture of birefringent granules and nonbirefringent fragments of granules, in which some aggregates of granules and fragments are present. The use of the starch binder-disintegrant ingredient allows active ingredients, e.g. pharmaceuticals, to be tabletted by direct compression.