[2] Three are used for the majority of commercial cultivation of the insect: palas (Butea monosperma), kusum (Schleichera oleosa), and ber (Ziziphus mauritiana).

[4] The species was described and given the binomial name Coccus lacca in 1781 (published formally in 1782) by the Scottish surgeon James Kerr (1737–1782) in Patna.

It is a versatile product used in a wide array of applications, and demand for it in many industries provides economic resources that filter down to rural tribes.

[4] In Vietnam, the introduction of K. lacca cultivation has brought economic recovery to impoverished mountain villages and has helped to revegetate deforested hillsides.

Wild type insect possesses crimson body colour due to the presence of a complex closely resembling water-soluble polyhydroxy-anthraquinones, collectively called lac dye.

Apart from their usage in food and cosmetics, these anthraquinones also exhibit many pharmaceutical properties, including antibiotic, antiviral, antifeedant effect.

A 2014 study proposes the possible biosynthetic pathway for the constituents of lac resin which identifies acetyl-CoA as a common precursor molecule and the role of prenyltransferases in the biosynthesis of sesquiterpenes along with cytochrome P450 enzyme.