Mortar (tool)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grinding of plant material with a mortar-like tool
A woman with a mortar ( Nepali khala ) in Nepal

Mortar , from Middle High German morser from the Latin word mortarium , is a mortar made of porcelain , agate , corundum , marble , granite , serpentinite , glass , melamine , bronze , iron , hard wood or similar materials. The mortar is used to crush and partially pulverize solid substances with the help of a pestle or pestle .

In the mortar, the substances are ground with circular movements or crushed with vertical pressure, while in the usually larger pounding trough softer substances are pounded into a pulp with a long pestle in vigorous up and down movements. In the case of mortars, one can further distinguish between mortars, fancy bowls and paten as well as mortars. Mortars have a thick vessel wall with a smooth inside. Fantasy bowls or patenes also have a smooth inside, but thinner walls. Mortars are characterized by a rough surface in the bowl and on the pestle. This linguistic distinction is not always made in relevant specialist books, since all three devices are called mortar in English .

mortar

In the pharmaceutical industry , mortars and pestles are used, for example, to poke medicinal drugs with essential oils . The plant's storage organs for the essential oil are destroyed and this is released. Due to their shape, mortars are also suitable for higher mechanical loads. The smooth surface allows a more thorough cleaning than mortars.

In medicine , drugs that are only available in solid dosage form are pounded in a mortar when they have to be delivered to the patient via a catheter . This is known as "mortaring".

Bronze mortars used to be made by the bell- makers as they are made of the same material as bells . So not only could you use the same casting compound (an alloy of copper and tin ), but sometimes even the same shapes or ornaments. So it happens that many old mortars show religious motifs on the edge. Antique bronze mortars are sought-after antiques and have therefore often been imitated.

Modern mortars

Mortars are usually made of porcelain and have a rough surface on the inside. The pestle used here is also roughened on the work surface. A mortar is used to crush (grind) powdery solid substances that are sufficiently brittle. The shredding is achieved by circular movements of the pestle with light pressure. The main shredding principle is the friction between the two roughened surfaces. With careful work and suitable powders, particle sizes of up to 50 µm can be achieved. Due to the rough surface, mortars are not suitable for greasy or oily preparations that could clog the pores or contaminate the next preparation. These problems can be avoided by using extremely hard agate mortars with an extremely smooth surface. Another advantage of the agate design is extremely low contamination of the material to be shredded.

For effective use, the mortar and pestle must be matched so that the radius of curvature of the inner surface of the mortar is always greater than the radius of curvature of the working surface of the pestle. This is the only way to avoid the creation of "dead spaces" during work.

Fantasy bowls

Fantas dishes (after the inventor Max Fanta ) or paten are used in the pharmacy for the production of ointments , creams, gels or other semi-solid preparations. They have thinner walls than mortars and are usually made of melamine resin , stainless steel or glass. The surfaces of the bowl and the pestle are smooth, like a mortar, which is necessary for precise work with medicines.

  • (Standing) mortar with pestle

  • Agate mortar

  • Bronze mortar

  • Porcelain mortar

  • Earthenware mortar

  • Hardwood mortar and pestle

  • Stone mortar and pestle

Mortar grinders

Mortar grinder

In the laboratory so-called mortar mills are often used instead of mortars. The term mortar is incorrect after the above, but it has spread widely. Actually, the name should be attritor. In mortar grinders, the roughened bowl is set in rotation, the pestle rotates asymmetrically as a result of this movement and the material is ground and mixed. Mortar grinders are available in different designs, depending on the volume and material of the mortar.

The first mechanical mortar grinder was invented and patented by F. Kurt Retsch ( Retsch GmbH ) in 1923 . Therefore, the term Retschmühle is still used today .

Uses

The mortar is mainly used in pharmacy in the manufacture and testing of drugs , in the medical and nursing field for crushing drugs before administration and in the kitchen in food preparation.

The material to be crushed is placed in the mortar bowl and crushed or rubbed with the pestle .

Drug manufacturing

Mortar in the pharmacy sign

With the pestle, the substance to be mortar is pushed together and crushed until it has reached the desired size. Achievable grain sizes for medicinal drugs are between coarse (0.75 mm), medium-fine (0.3 mm) or finely powdered (0.15 mm). The mortar can also be used to mix powders before further processing into the finished dosage form. For reasons of occupational health and safety, gloves and a face mask should be worn when chopping.

Instead of mortars, you can also use mortar grinders, which are available in different designs, depending on the volume and material of the mortar and the material to be mortarized.

There is a difference in result between a mortar and a grinder . The classic method of crushing with a mortar offers gentle crushing. Biological samples, such as herbs or medicinal plants, could lose their pharmacological effectiveness due to the heat development, which occurs as a side effect of the high energies during nanomilling.

In pharmaceutical-chemical analysis, the mortar of tablets, granulates and powders is used for sample preparation. A vibrating disc mill is used for quality control of solids.

Shredding drugs prior to administration

In the field of medicine and treatment care, the mortar is used to crush or pulverize drugs in solid dosage forms such as tablets so that they can be administered orally to patients with swallowing disorders ; The method is also used when the patient has to be fed drugs via a gastric tube. To do this, the pounded medication is administered dissolved in some water.

Electric mortars are also available.

Certain medicines should not be ground in a mortar. For example, the administration of a pounded prolonged-release tablet can lead to an undesired overdose. With all solid drugs such as encapsulated drugs and film- coated tablets , gastro-resistant capsules , it must be ensured that the mortar is permitted and that no liquid oral preparation , powder or granules are available. The place where the drug is introduced into the digestive tract is important and must be taken into account because of the different pH values ​​( stomach : acidic , intestines : neutral or basic ).

Different drugs must not be ground and dissolved together, as an interaction cannot be ruled out that may change or cancel the effect.

Food preparation

Black pepper in a mortar

In the kitchen , the mortar is used when preparing food to gently chop ingredients such as spices and also meat or vegetables .

history

Mortaring food is a cultural technique that has existed since the beginning of human history . The oldest mortars come from Wadi Kubbaniya in Egypt . The Incas , Mayas and Aztecs used the molcajete, a mortar.

Today, mortars are spreading through television appearances by chefs such as Paul Bocuse , Jamie Oliver and Johann Lafer .

Application examples
In the Congo women crush fufu to a pulp in a pounding trough .
  • Chopping vegetables: Pounding cassava turns it into pulp after detoxifying it with water. The Thai dish Som Tam is prepared in a clay mortar.
  • Chopping meat: A meat paste is prepared in Vietnam with a mortar.
  • Chopping herbs: Herbs can be chopped up with the mortar to preserve their aroma.
  • Crushing spices: Crushing spices with the mortar results in a more intense taste.
  • Extract aroma: Aromas can be extracted gently with the mortar.
  • Separation of the fiber components: The separation of fiber components is possible by using a mortar and then passing through.
  • Preservation: In order to accelerate the drying of plants, they are pounded beforehand.
  • Pulpy preparations: Examples of foods that should preferably be ground in a mortar are pesto and guacamole

The mortar must be ground in before use. After the mortar is used, the mortar must be cleaned to prevent the transfer of flavors. Separate mortars can also be used for individual tasks.

See also

literature

  • B. Dubbe: The Mortar Collection Ernst Genz. 1000 mortars from 10 centuries. Berg am Starnberger See 1994, 382 pp.
  • Wolfgang Hömberg: The North German bronze mortar in the age of Gothic and Renaissance. (with a preface by Rudolf Schmitz) Stuttgart 1983 (= sources and studies on the history of pharmacy , 23).
  • Dirk Arnold Koning: bronze mortar . Frankfurt am Main 1975 (= monographs on pharmaceutical cultural history , 4).
  • Edmund Launert: The mortar. History and appearance of a pharmacy device. Materials, shapes, types. Callwey, Munich 1990, 216 pages, ISBN 3-7667-0985-2 .
  • Rudolf Schmitz : mortars, flasks and vials. From the world of pharmacy. Stuttgart 1966; Reprint, extended by a foreword, Graz 1978.
  • Paul Bocuse : The new kitchen. The cookery book from the king of cooks . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf, ISBN 3-430-11357-1 (French: La Cuisine du Marché . Translated by Isabelle and Bernd Neuner-Duttenhofer ).
  • Mechthild Seel: Caring for people: being healthy, being sick, aging, dying, observing . 2003, ISBN 3-87706-996-7 .
  • Bianka Zimmermann: Enteral nutrition and administration of medication via the tube . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-17-020410-2 .

Web links

Commons : Mortar  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: mortar  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matthias Bastigkeit: Not all dosage forms can be divided , Pharmaceutical newspaper, issue 3/2004..
  2. ^ A b Richard Brieger: Fundamentals of practical pharmacy . ISBN 978-3-642-91427-0 .
  3. ↑ Reinhard Wylegalla: Mortars and scales . Ed .: Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung. tape 19 , 2011, p. 76 ( deutsche-apotheker-zeitung.de ).
  4. ↑ TechnoPharm (Ed.): Crushing and grinding tablets . tape 4 , no. 5 . Editio Cantor Verlag, Aulendorf 2014, p. 238-240 ( ecv.de [PDF]).
  5. ↑ Tablet mortar. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
  6. ↑ a b Constanze Schäfer (Ed.): Probe application of drugs. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart 2010, pp. 21 and 23. ISBN 978-3-8047-2374-0
  7. ↑ Fresenius Kabi (Ed.): Drug administration via probe . S. 10 .
  8. ↑ Emil Hoffmann: Evolution of the earth and life: From the primordial cell to Homo Sapiens . 2015, ISBN 978-3-7386-7417-0 : "Already 100,000 years ago in Mozambique "
  9. ↑ a b Fuchs Gewürz (Ed.): The correct mortar: It depends . ( fuchs.de ): "The mortar - the oldest kitchen appliance"
  10. ^ Sophie D. Coe: America's First Cuisines (Aztecs - Food., Mayas - Food., Incas - Food). Ed .: University of Texas Press. Austin 1994, ISBN 0-292-71155-7 , pp. 109, 273 (English).
  11. ↑ Classic: Bocuse, The New Kitchen .
  12. ↑ Jamie Oliver talks you through using a pestle and mortar ( en )
  13. ↑ Johann Lafer cooks with herbs and spices . Falken, Niedernhausen / Ts 1997, ISBN 978-3-8068-7302-3 .
  14. ↑ Mashed Foofoo .
  15. ↑ Multipurpose Meat Paste. Retrieved June 7, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Ignite aromas with a mortar and pestle. Retrieved May 7, 2018 .
  17. ↑ Nikolai Buroh, Dorothee Gödert: The great book of herbs & spices . Gräfe and Unzer, Munich 2015, ISBN 3-8338-0767-9 , pp. 141 .
  18. ↑ Handbook of Nutrition: First Volume General Dietetics (Nutrients and Food General Nutritional Cures) . Springer, ISBN 978-3-7091-9933-6 .
  19. ↑ Lotte Heerschop, Adolphe Habimana: Isombe! A cultural technique of preservation from Rwanda . June 10, 2015.
  20. ↑ Margit Proebst: Pesto . Gräfe and Unzer, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8338-0665-0 .
  21. ↑ Why it's realy, truly worth it, to finally buy yourself a mortar and pestle. Retrieved June 7, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Donald Porta: Conditioning Granite Mortar and Pestle . March 27, 2017.