The number of asthma patients taking a "fish medicine" in this Andhra Pradesh capital has come down in the wake of a controversy surrounding its efficacy and its secret contents.

The serpentine queues - a common sight during the annual administration of the medicine by a family here - were missing as the handing out of the "miracle medicine" began on a subdued note Wednesday morning and continued till the evening.

An estimated 30,000 patients gulped down a live murrel fish with a herbal paste stuffed in its mouth. The administration of the medicine will continue till Thursday morning and another 20,000 patients are expected to take it.

The Bathini Goud family claims that like last year, half a million people would take the medicine but the actual numbers this year may not even cross 100,000.

In pursuance of a high court order, the state government put up banners at the venue stating that the fish medicine did not have any proven medical value.

Health department officials collected 20 samples of the medicine to be sent to laboratories for analysis in keeping with the court's order.

Despite demands from physicians to reveal the ingredients of the herbal paste and allegation by rationalists that they were cheating people, the Goud family has refused to reveal the contents saying the medicine would lose its efficacy.

The family claims that in 1845, a holy man passed on the formula for the miracle medicine to their great-great-grandfather Veranna Goud, a toddy tapper, on the promise that he would distribute it free of cost.

Responding to a petition by the NGO Jana Vignana Vedika, the high court Tuesday declined to stop the administration of medicine but directed the state government to inform people that the fish medicine had no medicinal value.

It also asked the government to send samples of the medicine for chemical examination and asked the Goud family to file a reply revealing the ingredients of the herbal paste.

In another order Tuesday, First Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Prameela Reddy asked police to book cheating cases against the Goud brothers.

The order was passed in response to a petition by C.L. Venkat Rao of the Charminar chapter of the Indian Medical Association.

Rao referred to a report by a city-based laboratory that the fish medicine contained steroids and heavy metals.

Police, however, said they were yet to receive written orders in this regard.