Ampulla (disambiguation)

An ampulla (plural "ampullae") was, in Ancient Rome, a "small nearly globular flask or bottle, with two handles" (OED). The word is used of these in archaeology, and of later flasks, often handle-less and much flatter, for holy water or holy oil in the Middle Ages.

  • Monza ampullae - 6th century, metal souvenirs of pilgrimages to the Holy Land.
  • Holy Ampulla - glass, part of the French coronation regalia and believed to have divine origins.
  • The Ampulla in the British Crown Jewels, a hollow, gold, eagle-shaped vessel from which the anointing oil is poured at the Coronation of the British Monarch.

Medicine and science

  • By extension, in scientific contexts, ampulla may mean a dilated segment in a tubular structure. It is used to describe several anatomical structures:
    • Ampullae of Lorenzini – electroreceptors in fish
    • Ampulla of uterine tube (ampulla tubae uterinae)
    • Ampulla of ductus deferens (ampulla ductus deferentis)
    • Cisterna chyli (ampulla chyli)
    • Duodenal ampulla or duodenal cap (ampulla duodeni) – the very first part of the duodenum, which is not retroperitoneal.
    • Hepatopancreatic ampulla, also called ampulla of Vater
    • Rectal ampulla (ampulla recti)
    • Osseous ampullae (ampulla ossea) – in the semicircular canals of the mammalian ear
  • Ampullae are also bulb-like structures above the tube feet in echinoderms, and part of the valvae in arthropod male genitals.
  • Ampulla (gastropod), a genus of sea snails
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