Management of Psoriasis: A Review of Current Treatments and Ethnobotanical Surveys for Anti-psoriasis Studies

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated skin disease which affects a large number of people across the globe and is accompanied with keratinocytes hyperproliferation and skin inflammation. The management of psoriasis includes a comprehensive plan that includes a combination of traditional medicines with other newer strategies to enhance outcomes in patients. This report discusses the most widespread methods, including topical medications, systemic therapies (like many biologics), as well as phototherapy. The use of these treatments has shown to be helpful in resolving clinical symptoms but continuous intake of these treatment options can have negative consequences and or reduced effectiveness thus making it necessary to look for other options. Ethnopharmacological studies are imperative in the search for anti-psoriatic drugs as many plants have been shown to have the ability to reduce inflammation and the activity of the immune system. Different societies have used these traditional medicinal plants such as Aloe vera, Curcuma longa and Silybum marianum to manage psoriasis and the bioactive compounds obtained from them have been shown to possess anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties in recent studies. The purpose of this article is to close the gap between traditional treatments and the ethnobotanical approach, while calling for deeper investigations of treatments based on plants.