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An ampoule (also ampul and ampule) is a small sealed
vial A vial (also known as a phial or flacon) is a small glass or plastic vessel or bottle, often used to store medication in the form of liquids, powders, or capsules. They can also be used as scientific sample vessels; for instance, in autosam ...
which is used to contain and preserve a sample, usually a solid or liquid. Ampoules are usually made of glass. Modern ampoules are most commonly used to contain
pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
s and chemicals that must be protected from air and contaminants. They are
hermetically sealed A hermetic seal is any type of sealing that makes a given object airtight (preventing the passage of air, oxygen, or other gases). The term originally applied to airtight glass containers but, as technology advanced, it applied to a larger ca ...
by melting the thin top with an open flame, and usually opened by snapping off the neck. The space above the chemical may be filled with an
inert gas An inert gas is a gas that does not readily undergo chemical reactions with other chemical substances and therefore does not readily form chemical compounds. Though inert gases have a variety of applications, they are generally used to prevent u ...
before sealing. The walls of glass ampoules are usually sufficiently strong to be brought into a
glovebox A glovebox (or glove box) is a sealed container that is designed to allow one to manipulate objects where a separate atmosphere is desired. Built into the sides of the glovebox are gloves arranged in such a way that the user can place their hand ...
without any difficulty. Glass ampoules are more expensive than bottles and other simple containers, but there are many situations where their superior imperviousness to gases and liquids and all-glass interior surface are worth the extra cost. Examples of chemicals sold in ampoules are injectable
pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...
s, air-sensitive reagents like
tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) Tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) (sometimes called quatrotriphenylphosphine palladium) is the chemical compound d(P(C6H5)3)4 often abbreviated Pd( PPh3)4, or rarely PdP4. It is a bright yellow crystalline solid that becomes brown upon d ...
,
hygroscopic Hygroscopy is the phenomenon of attracting and holding water molecules via either absorption (chemistry), absorption or adsorption from the surrounding Natural environment, environment, which is usually at normal or room temperature. If water mol ...
materials like
deuterated solvents Deuterated solvents are a group of compounds where one or more hydrogen atoms are substituted by deuterium atoms. These isotopologues of common solvents are often used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Examples * Heavy water * Deuterat ...
and
trifluoromethanesulfonic acid Triflic acid, the short name for trifluoromethanesulfonic acid, TFMS, TFSA, HOTf or TfOH, is a sulfonic acid with the chemical formula CF3SO3H. It is one of the strongest known acids. Triflic acid is mainly used in research as a catalyst for este ...
, and analytical standards.


Early history

Historically, ampoules were used to contain a small sample of a person's blood after death, which was entombed alongside them in many Christian catacombs. It was originally believed that only
martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external party. In ...
s were given this burial treatment, though it is suspected to have been a widely practiced tradition. An ampoule allegedly dating back to the year 305 and filled with the
blood Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood is com ...
of
Saint Januarius Januarius ( ; ; Neapolitan and ), also known as , was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', 'witness' Word stem, stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing ...
(''San Gennaro''), bishop of
Benevento Benevento ( ; , ; ) is a city and (municipality) of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the Sabato (r ...
, has been kept for centuries in the
Cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...
at
Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
. Every year on 19 September the town celebrates the
Feast of San Gennaro The Feast of San Gennaro (in Italian language, Italian: ''Festa di San Gennaro''), also known as San Gennaro Festival, is a Naples, Neapolitan and Italian-American patronal festival dedicated to Saint Januarius, patron saint of Naples and Little ...
, when the solid reddish-brown contents of the ampoule usually liquifies after being taken out of a safe. It is then carried in procession and placed on the Cathedral's altar. Another well-known ampoule is the
Holy Ampulla The Holy Ampulla or Holy Ampoule (''Sainte Ampoule'' in French) was a glass vial which, from its first recorded use by Pope Innocent II for the anointing of Louis VII in 1131 to the coronation of Louis XVI in 1775, held the chrism or anointin ...
(''Sainte Ampoule'') which held the
anointing Anointing is the ritual, ritual act of pouring aromatic oil over a person's head or entire body. By extension, the term is also applied to related acts of sprinkling, dousing, or smearing a person or object with any perfumed oil, milk, butter, ...
oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...
for the
coronation A coronation ceremony marks the formal investiture of a monarch with regal power using a crown. In addition to the crowning, this ceremony may include the presentation of other items of regalia, and other rituals such as the taking of special v ...
of the French monarchs. The oil was allegedly passed down from the time of
Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...
; it was kept for a time in the tomb of
Saint Remigius Remigius ( or ; – 13 January 533) was the Bishop of Reims and "Apostle of the Franks". On 25 December 496, he baptised Clovis I, King of the Franks. The baptism, leading to about 3000 additional converts, was an important event in the Christ ...
and later in the
Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Reims Notre-Dame de Reims (; ; meaning "Our Lady of Reims"), known in English as Reims Cathedral, is a Catholic cathedral in the French city of the same name, the seat of the Archdiocese of Reims. The cathedral was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and wa ...
. It was used at the
coronation of Charles X The coronation of Charles X of France, Charles X took place on 29 May 1825 in Reims, where he was crowned King of France and Navarre. The ceremony was held at the Reims Cathedral, Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Reims in Reims, the traditional site for ...
in 1825.


Production

Modern glass ampoules are produced industrially from short lengths of
glass tubing Glass tubes are mainly cylindrical hollow-wares. Their special shape combined with the huge variety of glass types (like borosilicate, flint, aluminosilicate, soda lime, lead or quartz glass), allows the use of glass tubing in many applications. Fo ...
, shaped by heating with gas torches and gravity in automated production lines.
Computer vision Computer vision tasks include methods for image sensor, acquiring, Image processing, processing, Image analysis, analyzing, and understanding digital images, and extraction of high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical ...
techniques are usually employed for
quality control Quality control (QC) is a process by which entities review the quality of all factors involved in production. ISO 9000 defines quality control as "a part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements". This approach plac ...
. The filling and sealing of ampoules may be done by automated machinery on an industrial scale, or by hand in small-scale industries and laboratory. Ampoule-filling machines can be categorized in three categories called automatic machine, semi automatic machine, and manual (hand-operated) machines. Blank ampoules can be purchased from scientific glass supply houses and sealed with a small gas torch. A Schlenk line may be used for sealing under inert atmospheres. This procedure usually involves nitrogen purging before and after filling liquid into ampoules in order to remove atmospheric air available inside the ampoules. Ampoules can be pressurized, have air evacuated from them, and have the air in the ampoule replaced with other gasses, often inert ones. The radio-pharmaceutical Xenon-133 often is packaged in glass ampoules and specially-shaped glass ampoules have long been used for samples of gaseous elements, such as all of the
noble gas The noble gases (historically the inert gases, sometimes referred to as aerogens) are the members of Group (periodic table), group 18 of the periodic table: helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), radon (Rn) and, in some ...
es save
radon Radon is a chemical element; it has symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive noble gas and is colorless and odorless. Of the three naturally occurring radon isotopes, only Rn has a sufficiently long half-life (3.825 days) for it to b ...
(mainly because it is radioactive with a
half-life Half-life is a mathematical and scientific description of exponential or gradual decay. Half-life, half life or halflife may also refer to: Film * Half-Life (film), ''Half-Life'' (film), a 2008 independent film by Jennifer Phang * ''Half Life: ...
less than half a week) and special thick-walled quartz and fluorite ampoules under high pressure containing fluorine and chlorine liquefied by the high pressure.
Teflon Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) is a synthetic fluoropolymer of tetrafluoroethylene, and has numerous applications because it is chemically inert. The commonly known brand name of PTFE-based composition is Teflon by Chemours, a spin-off from ...
ampoules have been developed, based on the concept of the Teflon jug for high-
molarity Molar concentration (also called molarity, amount concentration or substance concentration) is the number of moles of solute per liter of solution. Specifically, It is a measure of the concentration of a chemical species, in particular, of a solu ...
hydrofluoric acid Hydrofluoric acid is a solution of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in water. Solutions of HF are colorless, acidic and highly corrosive. A common concentration is 49% (48–52%) but there are also stronger solutions (e.g. 70%) and pure HF has a boiling p ...
, for containing chemicals that would corrode and/or ignite glass and/or contaminate themselves, corrode, or disintegrate metal containers where the reagent does not passivate the metal by rapidly forming a layer of a new inert compound on the metal surface reliably and predictably or at all. Photosensitive chemicals like many 14-dihydromorphinone opioids like
hydromorphone Hydromorphone, also known as dihydromorphinone, and sold under the brand name Dilaudid among others, is a morphinan opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain. Typically, long-term use is only recommended for pain due to cancer. It may b ...
and
oxymorphone Oxymorphone (sold under the brand names Numorphan and Opana among others) is a highly potent opioid analgesic indicated for treatment of severe pain. Pain relief after injection begins after about 5–10 minutes; after oral administration it ...
, various silver salts and so on can be packaged in ampoules of smoked glass, glass with chemicals added in manufacturing that filter out ultraviolet and other types of light, or be made with an opaque top and bottom (usually painted with opaque paint) and the rest of the ampoule wrapped in thick paper.


Usage

Ampoules are opened by scoring the neck and snapping the top off. In the "one point cut" (OPC) ampoules a dot above the neck identifies the correct thumb placement that aligns the thumb with a pre-made micro-score in the ampoule. If properly done, this last operation creates a clean break without any extra glass shards or slivers, but the liquid or solution may be filtered for greater assurance. Glass-particle contamination is of ongoing concern, with patients who receive medication
parenteral In pharmacology and toxicology, a route of administration is the way by which a drug, fluid, poison, or other substance is taken into the body. Routes of administration are generally classified by the location at which the substance is applied. ...
ly, such as intravenously under hospital care, at greater risk of receiving glass particulates when medication is aspirated. A 2016 study of 180 ampoules found 19,473 glass particles in aspirated fluids, with filtering only reducing the mean by 114 to 89 particles per ampoule. Glass particle contamination of an ampule occurred with all intravenous injection methods.


Standards

The production and packaging of ampoules are largely standardized by ISO 9187-1:2010 ''Injection equipment for medical use — Part 1: Ampoules for injectables''. This standard dictates three standardized forms: B, cut/straight-form; C, open-funnel; and D, sealed. (The "A" form is no longer used in the pharmaceutical industry and is not included in the updated version.) ISO 9187-1:2010 addresses what materials should be used in their manufacture, what the dimensions should be, what capacities they should have, how they should perform, and how they should be packaged. Characteristics such as breaking force, hydrolytic resistance, and annealing quality are specified for all three forms. Ampoules often have colored rings of
paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...
or enamel around their necks that are meant to identify the substance inside the ampoule. The rings are machine-readable and allow for accurate handling of the substance for the purposes of storage, labeling, and secondary packaging. Color coding of modern ampoules is done during the manufacturing process. A machine applies colored rings on the ampoule between the two ovens.


Other uses

Ampoules are common practice as containers of low-frequency
RFID tag Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder called a tag, a radio receiver, and a transmitter. When trig ...
s. These are used mainly for tagging animals for identification.


See also

*


References


Further reading

* Hans-Jürgen Bässler und Frank Lehmann : ''Containment Technology: Progress in the Pharmaceutical and Food Processing Industry.'' Springer, Berlin 2013, {{Use dmy dates, date=May 2017 Dosage forms Medicine storage containers Single-serve containers