These pictures should help you to understand what your chewing and what the makas is.So what would the makas be or feel like when I'm chewing root?
The first picture is of the fresh undried lateral kava root.---

The next picture is the same root but it has been cleaned and the outer bark removed.---

The next picture is showing the end of the lateral root, notice the star pattern, this star is created by the makas.----

In this next picture you can see me holding the makas, this is what makes the star pattern in the end of the lateral root.---

The last picture shows all the good stuff with a few of the makas at the bottom of the picture, they are long and flat, easy to take out when I process the wet root, before I dry it so I can micronize it..----

The stuff in between the makas is the starchy goodness of the kava, it does have a lot of kavalactones in it but the inner bark or the cambium layer has more kavalactones. So it is the star part of the root that is the makas, the rest is all good stuff.
Let me know if you have any other questions, aloha.
Chris