Revised: September 8, 2014
Accepted: October 14, 2014
Published online: November 2, 2014
Psoriasis comprises severe skin problems affects on quality of patient’s life. It affects 2% of the general population with age before 35 years old. Most potent and cheap psoriatic drugs are still largely unavailable. Recently, as aresult of the apparent side effects of chemical drugs, treatments of herbal origin gains the popularity among patients with skin disorders especially those for psoriasis. In this review, the uses of complementary and alternative medications of various topical herbal formulae with different potency against psoriasis was greatly assessed. Modified Psoriasis scoring systems were performed as evident of improvement when various topical herbal formula including traditional chinese medicine ingredients such as Camptotheca acuminate, Oleum horwathiensis, Capsaicin, furocoumarins, Curcumin, and Tars were used against psoriasis. Also, plant extracts of Aleo Vera, and green tea were reported in topical form for the treatment of psoriasis. Most studies indicated a variety of biological activities of used herbs depending on their chemical constituents. This versatile range of biological activities explaining, the apparent benefits of these herbs in monitoring of psoriasis.
Core tip: Herbal medicine plays a significant role in the treatment of psoriasis; this review gives a shed of light on some herbal medicine formulae and extracts including Aleo Vera, and green tea. These plants extracts and its formulae exhibited efficiency as anti-psoriasis agents. This may relate to the varying biological activities especially tissue repair actions.