Can salt water kill bacteria? Revealing the efficacy of salt water

The salt we eat in daily life has sodium chloride as its main ingredient. It is the most common condiment. However, the role of salt is not just that. It also has a certain bactericidal and disinfecting effect. Let us introduce it below.

In addition to water, animal body cells are also composed of other minerals, one of the main components of which is sodium ions. Sodium ions cannot be produced by the body itself and can only be absorbed through daily food. After the body ingests sodium ions, they are supplemented to various cell tissues.

However, this kind of sodium ions cannot be supplemented too much, that is, the sodium ion concentration in the body's cells cannot be too high and cannot exceed a certain concentration. If it exceeds this concentration excessively, the body's sodium ion concentration balance will be disrupted, and water must be drunk to dilute it back to that concentration. This is why people cannot do without salt and feel thirsty if they eat too much salt.

High-concentration salt water can indeed kill bacteria but cannot kill viruses, and it cannot replace disinfectant because it cannot kill viruses. Disinfectant refers to a preparation used to kill pathogenic microorganisms on the transmission medium to make it harmless. So strictly speaking, salt water cannot play a disinfecting role.