REVIEW article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Ethnopharmacology
Efficacy and Safety of Common Chinese Herbal Medicines in Treating Psoriasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Provisionally accepted
- 1Third People's Hospital of Hangzhou, Hangzhou, China
- 2Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China
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ABSTRACT Background:Psoriasis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease with a high incidence, imposing a substantial global disease burden. As a low‑cost complementary and alternative therapy, traditional Chinese herbal formulations have been widely used in clinical practice in China for the treatment of psoriasis. However, systematic analyses of their application value based on TCM syndrome patterns or treatment outcomes remain relatively limited. Objective: The study was to systematically assess the efficacy and safety of common traditional Chinese herbs in the treatment of patients with psoriasis. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, Web of Science, Scifinder, Wanfang Database, and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure). Literature meeting the predefined inclusion criteria underwent a secondary screening process. Meta-analysis was subsequently conducted using Review Manager software (version 5.4.1). Results: A total of 47 papers involving 3675 patients were included in the study. All TCM (herbal formula) groups showed positive effects in enhancing the treatment efficiency of different types of psoriasis. Specifically, compared to other types of psoriasis, herbal medicines preformed a more significant role in improving the efficiency of arthropathic psoriasis. In terms of reducing Psoriasis PASI scores, pustular psoriasis benefited more from TCM formula treatment. As for the improvement of TCM symptom indicators, patients with erythrodermic psoriasis showed the better efficacy. For psoriasis accompanied by blood dryness, herbal medicines were more effective in reducing DLQI scores.
Keywords: effectiveness, Herbal Medicine, Meta-analysis, Psoriasis, Traditional Chinese Medicine
Received: 04 Oct 2025; Accepted: 19 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 ZHOU, SUN, XU, Zhang and Xia. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xiujiao Xia
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