Water hyacinth ash is found to be an efficient and reusable catalyst for the synthesis of β-amino carbonyl/nitrile compounds by aza-Michael reaction of amines with α,β-unsaturated compounds at room temperature under solvent free condition. Due to low cost of the catalyst, good activity, ease of handling and easy recovery with high yields of the products in short reaction time, easy workup procedure, mild reaction condition, the protocol is highly applicable in synthetic organic chemistry.