Bacteriostatic water

Sterile water containing 0.9% benzyl alcohol as a preservative. The benzyl alcohol is bacteriostatic, meaning it stops bacteria multiplying rather than killing them outright, which is what allows a reconstituted vial to be entered more than once over a period of days rather than being discarded after the first draw.

No. Sterile water contains no preservative, so once the stopper is pierced the contents should be treated as single use. Bacteriostatic water contains 0.9% benzyl alcohol, which is what makes repeated withdrawals from the same vial reasonable. They are not interchangeable, and the preservative is the entire difference.

Let both vials reach room temperature first. Wipe both stoppers, draw the volume of water your calculation calls for, and direct the stream against the inside wall of the glass rather than onto the powder itself. Let the solid dissolve on its own. Do not shake it: agitation shears peptide chains, and the foam it produces makes accurate withdrawal difficult. Swirl gently if it needs help.

That depends on the concentration you want, not on a fixed rule. Concentration equals the mass in the vial divided by the volume of water added, so a 10 mg vial reconstituted with 2 mL gives 5 mg/mL. Work backwards from the concentration your protocol calls for. The reconstitution calculator on this site does the arithmetic, including the check that you are not trying to draw more volume than the vial holds.

An unopened vial is good until the expiry printed on it, typically a couple of years, stored at room temperature and out of direct light. Once the stopper has been pierced, the preservative is generally considered to hold for about 28 days. That 28 day figure is the convention for the water itself and says nothing about the stability of whatever has been dissolved into it, which is a separate and usually shorter question.

Room temperature, upright, out of direct light, with the stopper intact. It does not need refrigeration and freezing it serves no purpose. A reconstituted peptide solution is a different matter: that goes in the fridge, protected from light, dated against the lot number it came from.

Sometimes, and inconsistently. It is not a controlled substance, but Canadian retail pharmacies stock it irregularly and many will only order it in, so searches for a specific chain often come up empty. Buying it alongside the material it will be used with is usually simpler, which is why it is listed here in 10 mL and 30 mL.

Flip the centre off the aluminium seal with a thumbnail to expose the rubber stopper. The metal ring stays on. Do not remove the whole seal or the stopper, and wipe the exposed rubber before each entry.