Given below are two statements: one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other is labelled as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is a very useful technique for separating non-volatile or thermally fragile species.
Reason (R): The stationary phase in HPLC is a liquid, which protects the sample from high temperatures.
In the light of the above statements, choose the most appropriate answer from the options given below :