Drug assay was carried out according to the USP 27requirements with some modification (11). Since theamounts of the active component (i.e., HMPHA) of tabletscontaining 5 and 10 mg crude extracts were less than theLOQ obtained by the HPLC method, six tablets of 5 mgand three tablets of 10 mg extract were used for drug assay.Tablets were crushed to a fine powder, then assayed forHMPHA. The powder or the extract was placed in a 100mL volumetric flask. Twenty milliliters of methanol wasadded to each sample and extracted overnight (24 hours),followed by ultra-sonication (120 minutes) in a waterbath at 45°C. The extract so obtained was filtered andwashed with methanol (3X). The filtrates were evaporatedto dryness under a stream of nitrogen. The dry residuewas resolubilized in 1 mL chloroform: methanol (9:1) andsubjected to the HPLC assay, as explained earlier.