Plasma-treated water solutions (PTWS) allow the delivery of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) to cells and tissues for different purposes. The mechanism of RONS formation has been clearly modelled in simple liquids like water, by assuming a plasma-driven process independent from the liquid. PTWS for biological experiments, however, are often produced from solutions of complex composition, where the formation mechanism of RONS is far from being understood. In this paper, we describe how water, phosphate-buffered saline solution and two cell culture media were plasma-treated in different conditions to demonstrate how the different composition of the liquids affects the formation of stable RONS (H 2 O 2 and NO 2 − ) in the resulting PTWS, especially when aromatic organic molecules are present.