Kambo (drug)

Phyllomedusa bicolor - Giant leaf frog

• Kampo pae, name used by the Noke Kuin (formerly Katukina)[8]
• Dow kiet, a word used by the Matses[9]
• Sapo, kampô, kampu, vacina de sapo or vacina da floresta, in Brazilian Portuguese[10]

"Kambô" is a common name of Phyllomedusa bicolor, an Amazonian tree frog, also known as the blue-and-yellow frog, bicolored tree-frog, giant monkey frog, giant leaf frog, or waxy-monkey tree frog. "Sapo" means "toad" in Spanish and Portuguese.[1] The frog is an anuran amphibian that inhabits the Amazon and Orinoco basins in South America.[11]

Caxinauá village in Acre

Natives who practice kambo are Panoan-speaking indigenous groups in the southeast Amazon rainforest, such as the Mayoruna, Matses, Marubo, Amahuaca, Kashinawa, Katukina, Yawanawá, and the Kaxinawá.[2][12][4] There are ethnographic studies on the use of kambo in traditional Noke Kuin medicine in the region of the state of Acre, in the Brazilian Amazon.[13]

Since the mid-20th-century, kambo has also been practiced in urban regions of Brazil.[14][12] In 2004, Brazil banned the sale and marketing of kambo.[15] Import is illegal in Chile.[16] Outside of South America, it first became known as an alternative therapy in the late 2010s.[17]

In 2021 the Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia (TGA) banned the use of Kambo in Australia and classified it as a schedule 10 poison. It is listed in the category for “substances of such danger to health as to warrant prohibition of sale, supply and use”.[5][lower-alpha 1]

The kambo ritual. A) Phyllomedusa bicolor. B) Collecting the frog's secretions. C) Applying kambo to burns on the skin. D) Closeup of skin marks.[14]

To collect the secretions from the frog's body, first, the frog has to be caught. A practitioner will tie the frog to four sticks placed in the ground with its limbs completely stretched. The pulling causes the frog to become stressed enough to activate its defense mechanism and secrete a substance containing peptides from its skin.[18] After obtaining secretions, the frog goes back into the wild. The secretions are then left to dry.[18] Small burns are created on the skin, and a small dose of the frog secretions applied to the open wounds.[18] In native practice, the secretions are removed from the wounds after 15 to 20 minutes, ending the acute symptoms.[4]

Traditional practitioners claim that it aids fertility, cleanses the body and soul, increases strength, and brings good luck to hunts, though there is no evidence for these claims.[14][19] It is used by natives to who attempt to expel "panema" (bad spirit) and to induce abortions.[4] The secretions are also commonly used in people who suffer from tikish or laziness, a condition perceived as unfavorable by the Noke Kuin as the person stops participating socially.[20]

Joaquim Luz, a Yamanawa leader, criticized commercial sales and kambo's use without the preparation or permission of indigenous peoples, saying that the toxin users are at risk of death.[15] Other native groups have also expressed concerns.[14][12]

Outside South America, a kambo ceremony can involve just two people, the practitioner, the participant, or many participants at once, which is known as a kambo circle. Participants are encouraged to bring plenty of water, a towel, and a bucket.[17] There are usually yoga mats on the floor and the ceremony room, which is often the practitioner's living room, is heavily incensed.[17]

During the ceremony, the participant's skin is deliberately burnt multiple times, usually on the upper arm or leg, by the practitioner using a smoldering stick or vine.[18] The practitioner uses saliva or water to reconstitute the frog secretions and place it on top of the burnt skin.[18] Participants may be encouraged to shout "Viva" whenever one of them vomits into their bucket.[21] Short-term effects include violent nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, edema (swelling) of the face, headaches, and tachycardia. The secretions seem to be vasoactive (affecting the circulation), explaining why they are absorbed rapidly.[4]

Intoxication may occur immediately or within hours.[7]

The effect of the increased use of kambô rituals, and trafficking of the frogs and their secretions, may have an effect on the population of Phyllomedusa bicolor in its natural habitats: the forests of Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, the Guianas, Colombia, and Venezuela.[14] Phyllomedusa bicolor is not considered an endangered species by the IUCN.[30] Besides Phyllomedusa (species?), other threatened endemic frog species of South America's neotropical regions have been poached and smuggled on the black market.

• Species used
• 
  Phyllomedusa bicolor
• 
  Tree frog, Caetité, Bahia, Brazil
• 
  Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis
• 
  Phyllomedusa burmeisteri
• 
  Phyllomedusa theringii
• 
  Phyllomedusa trinitatis
• 
  Phyllomedusa distincta
• 
  Bolivian Phyllomedusa
• 
  Phyllomedusa azurea

A 40-year-old businessman was charged in Brazil in 2008 with the illegal exercise of medicine and felony murder after administering kambo toxins to a business colleague, who died; the deceased's son, who said his father had pressured him into participating, suffered more minor effects.[33][14] In Chile in 2009, Daniel Lara Aguilar, who suffered from chronic lumbar disc disease, died immediately after taking kambo administered by a local shaman in a mass healing ceremony; the autopsy was inconclusive due to preexisting conditions.[15][34] The medical literature reported the 2018 case in Italy of a person with no known preexisting conditions besides obesity and ventricular hypertrophy, who, according to autopsy reports, died of cardiac arrhythmia while under the effects of kambo use.[35][14] In March 2019, kambo practitioner Natasha Lechner suffered a cardiac arrest and died while receiving kambo.[17][36][6] In April 2019, a homicide investigation was opened into the death by "severe cerebral edema" of a young person who had taken kambo toxins in Chile; the import of the frog and its secretions is illegal in Chile.[16][37] In October 2021, Australian man Jarred Antonovich died at a festival in New South Wales from a perforated oesophagus suspected to be caused by excessive vomiting after being administered kambo and n,n-dimethyltriptamine. After a car accident in 1997 from which he had to learn to walk and talk again, he was left with lasting impediments, the inquest heard, which may have contributed to the esophageal rupture.[38]

Chemical structure of dermorphin

The frog secretes a range of small chemical compounds of a type called peptides, which have several different effects.[39] Peptides found in the frog secretions include the opioid petides dermorphin and deltorphin, the vasodilator sauvagine, and dermaseptin, which exhibits antimicrobial properties in vitro.[4] Various other substances such as phyllomedusin, phyllokinin, caerulein, and adrenoregulin are also present.[39] There is active medical research into the peptides found in the skin secretions of Phyllomedusa bicolor, focusing on discovering their biological effects. There have been some preclinical trials in mice and rats, but no phase-1 tests or clinical trials of safety in humans, as of November 2019.[4]