Objective To search for the potential plasma biomarkers for patients with psoriasis vulgaris by metabonomics technology based on nuclear magnetic resonance ¹H spectroscopy (¹HNMR), and to explore the related metabolic pathway. Methods ¹HNMR technique was applied to examine the plasma samples from 10 patients with psoriasis vulgaris and 12 healthy volunteers. The data were analyzed for pattern recognition using principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). The differential metabolites in plasma between patients psoriasis vulgaris and healthy volunteers were analyzed, and the metabolic pathways were constructed according to the changes of the differential metabolites. Results Pattern recognition analysis had a satisfactory discriminating and predicting performance. Compared with healthy volunteers, the levels of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL), lipids, leucine, isoleucine, valine, β-hydroxybutyrate, lactate, alanine, arginine, N-acetylglycoproteins, acetoacetate, glutamate, pyruvate, glutamine, citrate, creatine, creatinine, glucose, aspartate and phenylalanine in plasma of patients with psoriasis vulgaris were greatly increased. Conclusion Our results suggest that patients with psoriasis vulgaris have disorders of lipid metabolism, glucose metabolism and amino acid metabolism, accompanied by inflammation and functional damage to the liver and kidney, which may improve our understanding of the pathogenesis of psoriasis vulgaris.