Experimental Investigation of the Effect of Water Hyacinth Extract Utilized for Curing on the Compressive and Flexural Strength of Concrete

This study investigates the effect of water hyacinth extract (WHE) when used as a curing agent on the compressive strength and flexural strength of the Concrete. The efficiency of Water Hyacinth Extract (WHE) was evaluated by curing concrete samples using a ponding method with varying proportions of water and WHE (100–0%, 80–20%, 60–40%, 40–60%, 20–80%, 0–100%). The mixture proportion of 1:2.5:5 and a mixture ratio of 0.5 were cured in making concrete. Universal Testing Machine was used for this investigation in determining the Compressive and Flexural Strength of Concrete. Based on the result, the compressive strength sample cured with 20% water hyacinth extract for 28 days exhibited the highest compressive strength value of 16.23 MPa, while 80% WHE yields the highest flexural strength of 2.73 MPa. Results show that Water hyacinth extract is efficient and effective when utilized as a curing agent of concrete.