The importance of charcoal-stripped human serum in the study is particularly in the preparation of calibration standards and quality control samples for estrogen metabolite assays. The primary purpose of charcoal stripping is to eliminate endogenous hormones from the serum sample, creating a hormone-depleted medium for subsequent analyses.

Mass spectrometry is a powerful analytical technique that can be used to identify the chemical composition of historical artifacts. The technique works by ionizing a sample and then measuring the mass-to-charge ratio of the resulting ions. Each element has a unique atomic mass, and when a sample is ionized, the ions produced will have a mass-to-charge ratio that is specific to the elements present in the sample.

MLMS is a soft ionization technique that involves depositing a matrix onto a sample before ionization. The matrix acts as a mediator to transfer energy to the sample, which results in the generation of ions. The resulting ions are then analyzed using MS. MLMS is a type of Desorption Electrospray Ionization (DESI) technique, which allows for the direct analysis of complex samples without the need for extensive sample preparation