When discussing sterile water, the first thing is to make the distinction between it and distilled water.
Distilled water is not free of microorganisms and may allow their growth, while sterile water is completely free of microorganisms, so no organic growth is possible.
Since sterile water has no microorganisms living within it, it cannot transfer pathogens and therefore is used mainly in medical settings.
As sterile water does not contain the same amount of dissolved salt as the human body, overhydration would occur if a doctor were to use the water as an irrigation fluid during surgery or any other invasive medical procedures. The value of sterile water is its ability to act as a solvent in many pharmacological compounds that doctors can eventually inject into patients. The water is also used by doctors to help clean wounds without putting patients at risk for infection.
Sterile water plays a big role in medical research. In many cases, water is essential to study microorganisms. Using sterile water is needed in these and other experiments as normal or even distilled water may introduce outside bacteria into the experiment. This contamination would invalidate all test results and put other tests in the same laboratory at risk. So sterilized water is the only acceptable water for lab research.
To make sterile water, you must do the following:
- Use a pressure cooker, a hermetically sealed pot or an autoclave. Make sure that the temperature rises above the normal boiling point of water.
- Fill the cooker with water.
- Place cooker with water on a heat stove.
- Boil water for a minimum of 20 minutes.
- The temperature within the cooker should be maintained at 121 C throughout the boiling period.
Your sterile water is ready.