The dried spongy fruit of luffa (Luffa cylindrica L), a cucurbitaceous crop available in abundance in tropical and sub-tropical countries has been found to be a promising material for immobilizing microbial cells. The aim of the present study was to examine the ethanol production from mahula flowers in submerged fermentation using whole cells of Saccharomyces cerevisiae immobilized in luffa sponge discs. The cells not only survived but also were physiologically active in three more cycles of fermentation without significant reduction (<5%) in ethanol production. After 96 h, there was 91.1% sugar conversion producing 223.2 g ethanol/kg flowers (1st cycle) which was 0.99%, 2.3% and 3.2% more than 2nd (221 g ethanol/kg flowers), 3rd (218 g ethanol/kg flowers) and 4th (216 g ethanol/kg flowers) cycle of fermentation, respectively. Furthermore, ethanol production by immobilized cells was 8.96% higher than the free cells. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.