I really liked the powdered fruit pectin for caning after I really liked powdered jello, flour, starch. But, when I got some
Gum Tragacanth.
It was less sutle. No weird aftertaste like other stuff.
" Mythology has long accused cigar makers of twirling cigars in their mouth, using saliva to secure the head, and there is evidence to give credence to the legend. Certainly early cigar rollers, especially those making cigars for their own consumption, did exactly that. But by the time cigar production became factory-centered in the first half of the 1800’s, the heads of cigars were almost universally held in place by gum tragacanth bled from the tap root of Iranian loco-weed and dried.
Tragacanth is odorless and tasteless and when added to water becomes a gel used in foods, art, medicine, cosmetics and cloth manufacture as a stiffener, binder, thickener and glue. The cigar industry used it as a paste for two centuries. Trade relations with the middle-East have always been volatile and so has the price of the gum. That’s why this 1885 ad warns that prices are subject to change. Today, because of worsening relations with the middle-east and the ability to cultivate other gums in the western hemisphere, gum tragacanth has largely been replaced in most U.S. commercial applications
In Latin countries, stickum of various types goes
by the generic goma. "
http://cigarhistory.info/Cigarmaking/Cigarmaking_tools_II.html