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Abstract

A combination of social surveys and direct field observations was used to identify and determine the abundance status of chewing stick botanicals in the tree zones of Ekiti State, Nigeria. Voucher specimens of the botanicals identified by the respondents were collected, identified and relevant information on them were documented. The relative abundance of the identified species was determined based on their accessibility when required. Thus species were classified into two groups, abundant species and scarce species. A total of 49 species belonging to 26 families were identified as being used for dental and oral health care in the study area and the various similarity measurements revealed that similar plant species were used in the three zones of the study area. Most of these species were indigenous species, the introduced species constituted 18% of the total number of the species used. Only 31% of the botanicals were cultivated in the study area and these species were cultivated mainly for other uses apart from the production of chewing sticks. The relative abundance test revealed that 34 of the species could be described as being abundant while 15 species (31 %) of the species were scarce. The major sources of these scarce species were the forests which were located far from the household areas. Chewing sticks acceptability tests conducted among the urban dwellers in the study area revealed that the use of chewing sticks cut across gender, age, educational and economic strata. However, the use of chewing sticks among the urban dwellers was governed by species availability rather than preference. Strategies that would enhance the conservation of the chewing sticks botanicals were proposed.

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