UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Psoriasis imposes a significant burden on both individuals and society. It is linked to several critical health issues, such as depression, psoriatic arthritis, and cardiometabolic syndrome. Solanum nigrum, also known as Black Nightshade, is used in Indian traditional medicine. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the antipsoriatic activity of S. nigrum hydrogel against Imiquimod-induced psoriasis in Wistar albino rats. In this study, 20 Wistar albino rats were randomly selected and divided into 4 groups, each group consisting of 5 animals. Groups I-control, Group II- Disease control (Imiquimod 5%w/w), Group III- Standard (Tazarotene 0.05% w/w), Group IV- Treatment 1 (Solanum nigrum hydrogel/SNHG). Psoriasis was induced with Imiquimod 5%w/w cream in all the groups except the control group. On the 24^th day, estimation of body weight, redness, scaling, erythema and thickness were evaluated. SNHG was found to control the psoriasis by lowering the psoriatic diameter, TNFα, IL-10 and serum albumin levels to normal, which might be due to the lowered skin inflammation, plaque formation and plaque-type psoriasis caused by imiquimod, and this was further supported by the PASI score. The IR spectrum of Solanum nigrum showed strong stretching vibrations at 3265.70 for the O-H group, at 2926.85 for aromatic C=H, and the structure also contains an aliphatic C-N stretch at 1030.13, for an S-S weak disulphide band at 521.13. In the estimation of TNF-α, the Control group maintains low TNF-α levels at day 12 and day 24, showing it does not show any inflammatory response. The Standard group and, SNHG group show comparatively similar levels of TNF-α. The study concluded that SNHG might offer a novel, natural, and effective treatment strategy for managing psoriasis, and it could be a potential source for the treatment of psoriasis.