2.3. Preparation of XYS extracts

The aqueous extract was prepared according to the method established by the research group (Zhao et al., 2023). All the herbs in the above-described XYS recipe were soaked for 40 min in 10-fold (volume to mass ratio) amount of distilled water, followed by decoction for 2 h. After collecting the filtrates, water was added to the residue (1:8, mass to volume ratio), and the mixture was extracted with boiling water for another 1.5 h. All filtrate was mixed and condensed to 2.12 g/mL (crude drug).