Smoke from Acacia bark is thought to keep demons and ghosts away and to put the gods in a good mood.

The chief exports of Pudkkottai were perfumes, groundnuts, Nux vomica seeds, avaram blocks used for tanning leather and acacia bark used in distilleries.

Starting from a base of wine or distilled spirits, these specially concocted aperitifs are infused with a cornucopia of herbs and other flavoring ingredients, among them bitter orange, gentian, foxglove, hyssop, chamomile, elder flowers, cinchona bark (quinine), acacia bark and cassia root.