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A survey of both urban and rural communities in five Local Government Areas (LGA) of Oyo State in Nigeria showed that 76% of households depend on fuelwood for cooking. The total annual wood consumption for fuelling by bread bakers, food sellers and in domestic cooking was 5984 metric tons for the region. The sawmills in the study area also convert 79 889 metric tons of wood yearly into boards of different grades. Total wood consumption outstrips the quantity of wood extracted from the forests. The balance of over 60 000 metric tons of wood is sourced from neighbouring forest locations. The quantity of wood harvested for various purposes did not show a significant difference (p < 0.05) among the five LGAs. However, a significant difference at p > 0.05 existed in the quantity of wood actually consumed in the various LGAs. Moreover. the number of trees cut down outstrips the number of trees planted with a significant difference (p > 0.05) between the mean quantity of wood removed from the forests and the mean quantity replaced by reforestation. The practice in the study area was that of 'cut-eight-plant-one' which is at variance to the much publicized operation 'cut-one-plant-one'. The study concludes that residents of Ogbomoso in Nigeria have not shown positive disposition to tree planting. It therefore suggests scientific tree conservation strategies aimed at improved burning of fuel wood and maximized use of timber products as complementary efforts to enforced tree planting for conservation of our forests.

The safety of many African traditional herbal remedies is doubtful due to lack of standardization. This study therefore attempted to standardize two polyherbal formulations from Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria, with respect to the relative proportions (weight-for-weight) of their botanical constituents. Information supplied by 41 local herbal practitioners was statistically screened for consistency and then used to quantify the composition of antimalarial (Maloff-HB) and haematinic (Haematol-B) powdered herbal formulations with nine and ten herbs, respectively. Maloff-HB contained the stem bark of Enantia chlorantha Oliv. (30.0), Alstonia boonei De Wild (20.0), Mangifera indica L. (10.0), Okoubaka aubrevillei Phelleg & Nomand (8.0), Pterocarpus osun Craib (4.0), root bark of Calliandra haematocephala Hassk (10.0), Sarcocephalus latifolius (J. E. Smith) E. A. Bruce (8.0), Parquetina nigrescens (Afz.) Bullock (6.0), and the vines of Cassytha filiformis L. (4.0), while Haematol-B was composed of the leaf sheath of Sorghum bicolor Moench (30.0), fruit calyx of Hibiscus sabdariffa L. (20.0), stem bark of Theobroma cacao L. (10.0), Khaya senegalensis (Desr.) A. Juss (5.5), Mangifera indica (5.5), root of Aristolochia ringens Vahl. (7.0), root bark of Sarcocephalus latifolius (5.5), Uvaria chamae P. Beauv. (5.5), Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides (Lam.) Zepern & Timler (5.5), and seed of Garcinia kola Heckel (5.5). In pursuance of their general acceptability, the two herbal formulations are recommended for their pharmaceutical, phytochemical, and microbial qualities.

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