Re: Luffa sponges.

..... and some more info-goodies re luffa

The good news is that in Paraguay, the loofah industry is up and growing, and some NGO's like OIPIC [es] are promoting its farming as a way for families to be able to compete with the soy or cotton industries. The loofah can be used as a filling for furniture or car seats, for making handbags, shoes, and bath sponges, insoles, sandals, as pot scrubbers (they are safe for use with metal non-stick pans), as an ingredient for natural hand-made soaps and even medication against sinus problems. Another benefit for loofah planting is that because it flowers year round, it is great for bee-keping, to keep a colony healthy, well fed and increase honey production, as the Bees for Development [en] website states. And well, it seems that now, thanks to Elsa Zaldívar, it will be a staple for construction as well.