pith

For example, some chimpanzees chew bitter piths of the medicinal shrub Vernonia amygdalina to treat worm infections—and even detour from their normal foraging routes to seek out the plants.

Warwick calls decapitation a “brutally cruel” method, and he thinks it’s unlikely that civilian hunters routinely pith the snakes’ brains.

This layer holds moisture, much like the pith in the center of a tree trunk.

The last is painted on the semi-circular pith of a banana tree and is owned by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Not that the movie was a landmark of pith.