Osmotic pressure is the minimum
pressure which needs to be applied to a solution to prevent the inward flow of water across a
semipermeable membrane. It is also defined as the measure of the tendency of a solution to take in water by
osmosis.
Potential osmotic pressure is the maximum osmotic pressure that could develop in a solution if it were separated from distilled water by a selectively permeable membrane. The phenomenon of
osmosis arises from the propensity of a pure solvent to move through a semi-permeable membrane and into a solution containing a solute to which the membrane is
impermeable. This process is of vital importance in biology as the cell's
membrane is semipermeable.