Main Difference

The main difference between Meat and Pith is that the Meat is a animal flesh eaten as food and Pith is a A tissue in the stems of vascular plants

• Meat

  Meat is animal flesh that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and killed animals for meat since prehistoric times. The advent of civilization allowed the domestication of animals such as chickens, sheep, rabbits, pigs and cattle. This eventually led to their use in meat production on an industrial scale with the aid of slaughterhouses.

  Meat is mainly composed of water, protein, and fat. It is edible raw, but is normally eaten after it has been cooked and seasoned or processed in a variety of ways. Unprocessed meat will spoil or rot within hours or days as a result of infection with and decomposition by bacteria and fungi.

  Meat is important in economy and culture, even though its mass production and consumption has been determined to pose risks for human health and the environment. Many religions have rules about which meat may or may not be eaten, and vegetarian people abstain from eating meat because of concerns about the ethics of eating meat or about the effects of meat production or consumption.

• Pith

  Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, which store and transport nutrients throughout the plant. In eudicotyledons, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocotyledons, it extends also into flowering stems and roots. The pith is encircled by a ring of xylem; the xylem, in turn, is encircled by a ring of phloem.

  While new pith growth is usually white or pale in colour, as the tissue ages it commonly darkens to a deeper brown color. In trees pith is generally present in young growth, but in the trunk and older branches the pith often gets replaced - in great part - by xylem. In some plants, the pith in the middle of the stem may dry out and disintegrate, resulting in a hollow stem. A few plants, such as walnuts, have distinctive chambered pith with numerous short cavities (See image at middle right). The cells in the peripheral parts of the pith may, in some plants, develop to be different from cells in the rest of the pith. This layer of cells is then called the perimedullary region of the pithamus. An example of this can be observed in Hedera helix, a species of ivy.

  The term pith is also used to refer to the pale, spongy inner layer of the rind, more properly called mesocarp or albedo, of citrus fruits (such as oranges) and other hesperidia. The word comes from the Old English word piþa, meaning substance, akin to Middle Dutch pitt, meaning the pit of a fruit.The pith of the sola or other similar plants is used to make the pith helmet.The pith of the sago palm, although highly toxic to animals in its raw form, is an important human food source in Melanesia and Micronesia by virtue of its starch content and its availability. There is a simple process of starch extraction from sago pith that leaches away a sufficient amount of the toxins and thus only the starch component is consumed. Current processes for starch extraction are generally only about 50% efficient, however, with the other half remaining in residual pith waste. The form of the starch after processing is similar to tapioca.

• Pith (noun)

  the spongy white tissue lining the rind of oranges, lemons, and other citrus fruits.

• Pith (noun)

  the spongy cellular tissue in the stems and branches of many higher plants.

• Pith (noun)

  spinal marrow.

• Pith (noun)

  the essence of something

  "the pith and core of socialism"

• Pith (noun)

  vigour and conciseness of expression

  "he writes with a combination of pith and exactitude"

• Pith (verb)

  remove the pith from

  "peel and pith the oranges"

• Pith (verb)

  pierce or sever the spinal cord of (an animal) so as to kill or immobilize it.

Pith Illustrations