The immobilization of bacterial cells within sponge discs was carried out as follows: The bacteria
suspension (0.5 mL) was inoculated into 250 ml Erlenmeyer flasks containing 100 mL of the growth
medium and four pre-weighed loofah sponge discs as an immobilizing matrix. The culture flask with no loofah sponge discs in the medium was served as the controls. The inoculated flasks were incubated at
30oC and shaken at 100 rpm. After 8 days of incubation, both free and loofah immobilized biomass of
bacterial cells were harvested from the medium, washed twice with distilled water and stored at 4oC until
use. The dry weight of the bacterial biomass entrapped within sponge discs was determined by weighing,
after drying in an oven at 70oC overnight, the sponge discs before and after bacterial growth.