It has been difficult to perform dissolution test on solid preparations of traditional Chinese medicines （TCMs）. TCMs are different from chemical drugs in that their chemical compositions are complicated. The measurement method based on chemical approach alone is incomplete. In order to solve this problem, in this study a bioassay-based dissolution test was developed. Microcalorimetry was used to obtain growth power-time curves and biothermodynamic parameters of Staphylococcus aureus inhibited by the solution of ShuangHuangLian （SHL） tablet, which was dissolved in phosphate buffer （pH 6.8） for different times. The results of the bioassay-based dissolution test of SHL tablet demonstrated that the bioassay method might be a promising alternative for its quality control.
