Diy bac water confusion?

[Bep2030]

Hey all!

I've been reading about diy bac water, but there's one thing I do not fully understand. Several people on this forum have mentioned that they make a large batch of bac water themselves and then transfer it into smaller sterile vials. Many also say that these vials can then be stored for a long time.

What I am wondering is: does the shelf life not effectively start from the moment the smaller vials are opened, filled and the rubber stopper is pierced? At that point, the original sterile seal has been broken.

I am curious how others view this and how they determine the shelf life of the filled vials

 

[kazza94x]

Bep2030 said:


Hey all!

I've been reading about diy bac water, but there's one thing I do not fully understand. Several people on this forum have mentioned that they make a large batch of bac water themselves and then transfer it into smaller sterile vials. Many also say that these vials can then be stored for a long time.

What I am wondering is: does the shelf life not effectively start from the moment the smaller vials are opened, filled and the rubber stopper is pierced? At that point, the original sterile seal has been broken.

I am curious how others view this and how they determine the shelf life of the filled vials

Click to expand...

Making your own bac water is not advised unless you have a sterile lab with all the equipment necessary. The moment you make the bacteriostatic water mixture and place it into a vial and seal it, the timer starts on the "shelf" life. The moment that vial is pierced is when the "28 days" reccommended life span of the vial starts. Some people have kept the vials for up to 3 months once pierced but the 28 days is what guarantees minimum to nil bacteria growth.

 

[tubby]

Bep2030 said:


Hey all!

I've been reading about diy bac water, but there's one thing I do not fully understand. Several people on this forum have mentioned that they make a large batch of bac water themselves and then transfer it into smaller sterile vials. Many also say that these vials can then be stored for a long time.

What I am wondering is: does the shelf life not effectively start from the moment the smaller vials are opened, filled and the rubber stopper is pierced? At that point, the original sterile seal has been broken.

I am curious how others view this and how they determine the shelf life of the filled vials

Click to expand...

Most (but not all) of the time, sterility isn't the primary concern as BAC water ages. You'll recall that the primary difference between BAC water and sterile water is the addition of a substance to attenuate bacterial growth. For example, you're not going to find a bacterial colony growing in old BAC water, as there is simply no food present for them to chow down on (with the exception of bacteria capable of metabolizing benzyl alcohol). Just as mammals don't do well on Mars (no food, oxygen, etc. for them), most bacteria isn't going to do well in BAC water. Obviously that equation changes somewhat once the BAC water is added to a lyophilized puck (with plenty of yummy food in it for any bacteria present to gobble up), but that's not what you asked about.

The primary concern is degradation of benzyl alcohol. This is because as the concentration of benzyl alcohol decreases, it both loses its effectiveness at attenuating bacteria and the concentration of things your body may not care (e.g. benzaldehyde) for goes up. In a certain light, this could make sterile water a superior choice at times (no benzyl alcohol to degrade), although there's a much more complicated pros vs cons list there.

When it comes to DIY BAC water, the bigger concern is that you don't really have control over what else might be in the water that your body might not care for, as you don't have access to equipment to purify water to the degree desired, nor do you have access to equipment to transfer the product into vials without the risk of something else coming along for the ride. And if you do have access to sterile water (that has been properly depyrogenated), it seems like an odd choice to mix it with benzyl alcohol you picked up somewhere in large batches VS just accepting that you're dealing with sterile water and working with lower dosed individual vials.

In my mind it boils down to this: If you can obtain properly produced BAC water commercially for less than $100 (or whatever), it's likely going to be superior to whatever homebrew process you cook up. And if for some reason you can't obtain BAC water or sterile water for injection and find yourself forced to reinvent the wheel, wouldn't it make more sense to try to emulate sterile water than BAC water? Not that I recommend the latter, just that at least it's a lower degree of complexity.

 

[Vuja]

Hi there,

I have 500 ml of sterile water for injection.

I added 5 ml of benzyl alcohol to the bottle, and it seems like the alcohol isn't dissolving well in the water.

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

The water isn't completely clear.

I simply transferred the 5 ml using a syringe, so contamination is impossible.