Ampulla (disambiguation)

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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 fishes
  • 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 in arthropod male genitals.