Comminution of pumpkin

Bishop's cap, butternut, nutmeg or the popular Hokkaido: numerous variations of the colourful autumn vegetable are available in the fall. Unfortunately, however, pumpkin plants absorb organochlorine pesticides (OCPs), among other things, particularly easily from the soil as a result of earlier conventional cultivation. In most cases, however, the residues in samples from the European region are well below the legal maximum levels nevertheless an examination of pumpkins mandatory. ^[1]
In order to grind small amounts of the pumpkin sample to a fine powder, we equipped the laboratory mill with a stainless steel grinding set and a grinding ball with 50 mm Ø

The sample was finally placed in the grinding set and ground at an amplitude of 3.0 mm with continuous addition of small portions of liquid nitrogen for 1.5 minutes. The sample was ground to a fine powder, which became a paste again after evaporation of the liquid nitrogen. The grinding set was cleaned with hot water and a dishwashing detergent.

If metal abrasion is to be avoided, we recommend our zirconium oxide grinding set. Zirconium oxide is the hardest ceramic material in our programme for metal-free grinding.