Kambo is a protective secretion from a vibrant green frog that lives in the Amazon Rainforest (basin area) in Brazil and Peru. Kambo holds several names: Acaté (secretion) and Datoé (frog) by Matsés tribe located in Peru and Brazil, Kambo by tribes located in Brazil, Sapo in spanish, Giant Waxy Monkey tree frog in english, and Phyllomedusa Bicolor in latin. Kambo is not an endangered species and it is believed that as long as they are respected and treated ethically as they have been for centuries, they will not become endangered.

At night, the frogs can be found climbing similar to monkeys (hence the name) in the top of trees emitting sound in harmony together to know each other's location and for mating.

Their secretion, which acts as their protection, has been harvested by indigenous tribes for holistic health for centuries. It was first discovered during a time where illness were plaguing tribes. The pajé (shaman) Kampu returned with Kambo from a journey into the forest while seeking medicine.

Kambo was first known outside of the Amazon in the 1920’s through the Kaxinawá (Huni Kuin) tribe. In the 1980’s the molecules of Kambo began to be investigated. In 1990’s Peter Gorman brought Kambo to the United States and since then further research is being conducted.

To apply kambo, a person will traditionally drink Caicuma (a liquid made of Yucca). Then a very small top layer of skin is quickly burned. The secretion is placed and is able to enter our lymphatic system, later the cardiovascular system.

Adults and children receive kambo. In the Matsés tribe, traditionally men and women serve each other Kambo (men to men & women to women). This practice varies outside of this tribe where women and men serve each other. For the Matsés, after the medicine is served the person goes into nature alone to move through the process. This differs in other tribes like the Huni Kuin for example, where sometimes the person remains where they were served and icarus (song prayers) are recited and sung during the process.

Kambo is served periodically to retain good physical health or when feeling physically unwell, in preparation for hunting or other activities that require prolonged stamina, mental clarity, cleansing of panema (bad spirits), which has been explained similarly to energetic clearing and to feelings of depression and anxiety, and in preparation for pregnancy or in cases of fertility difficulties.

These indigenous practices with kambo directly coincide with more recent scientific research that has so far identified 16 bioavailable peptides in the secretion that are antimicrobial, anti inflammatory, antidepressant, analgesic, strength enhancing, stress relieving, and supportive of vital cellular processes.

Kambo is continually researched and at this point there have been 16 bioavailable peptides identified in the secretion. Peptides are small chains of amino acids — the building blocks of proteins — that act like messengers in the body. They help cells communicate and play important roles in healing, digestion, mood, hormone balance, immune defense, and more.

Each of these 16 peptides very logically correlates to the holistic health benefits the tribes have experienced for centuries along with effects during a kambo session including: heat waves and facial flushing, chills, increased heart rate, nausea, blood pressure changes, sweating, abdominal discomfort, a need to purge (liquid that is ingested before hand) and/or defecate).

🥣 Digestion & Gastrointestinal Function

• Bombesin family (Bombesin & Bombesin-nonapeptide): Stimulates gastric and pancreatic secretions (also regulates stress, satiety, and nervous system responses).

• Caerulein: Mimics digestive hormones; activates pancreas and bile secretion.

• Phyllocaerulein: Supports pancreatic and bile secretions (also affects blood pressure and gut motility).

• Phyllolitorin: Stimulates intestinal muscle contractions, aiding peristalsis.

• Phyllomedusin: Stimulates mucus secretion and GI smooth muscle contraction (also regulates vascular tone and respiratory muscle contraction).

⚡ Pain Modulation & Neurological Effects

• Dermorphin: Powerful natural opioid; provides strong pain relief and euphoria.

• Deltorphin: Natural pain reliever via delta-opioid receptors.

• Neurokinin B: Modulates mood and pain sensitivity (also regulates reproductive hormones).

• Preprotachykinin B: Precursor to neurokinin peptides; supports brain and hormone signaling.

• Ranatachykinin A: Transmits pain signals; helps regulate blood flow and digestion.

🛡️ Immune Defense & Antimicrobial Activity

• Dermaseptin: Broad-spectrum antimicrobial peptide effective against bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

🔄 Hormonal Regulation & Stress Response

• Adenoregulin: Supports cell communication via adenosine receptors (also influences brain function and metabolism).

• Sauvagine: Mimics stress hormone CRF; triggers stress hormone release (also lowers blood pressure through vasodilation).

❤️ Cardiovascular & Blood Pressure Regulation

• Bradykinin: Dilates blood vessels and lowers blood pressure (also involved in pain and inflammation).

• Phyllokinin: Similar to bradykinin; causes vasodilation (also modulates pain signals).

• T-kinin: Regulates blood pressure and fluid balance (also participates in inflammatory responses).

Microdosing Kambo offers a gentle approach. It is not a lesser version of the medicine. it is a different way to form a relationship with it. A way that honors the body’s natural pace and thresholds, making space for attuned transformation. For some, this is an alternative path to a traditional kambo session that may further support in developing trust in the body's ability to meet change one small dose at a time.

Who Might Benefit from Microdosing Kambo?

• Individuals with autoimmune conditions, close proximity to covid, long covid, Lyme disease, especially presently experiencing a flare up.

• People currently experiencing high levels of symptomatology related to PTSD, developmental trauma, or nervous system dysregulation.

• Those with histamine intolerance or mast cell activation.

• Individuals with chronic illness or low vitality, who a full session may afford too much energy.

• People interested in slow, intentional energetic work

Why Microdose?

• May support gentle immune recalibration without triggering flare-ups

• Help regulate the nervous system by working within the window of tolerance and below the threshold of trauma response.

• Improve mood, mental clarity, and physical energy through steady, accumulative effects

• Build relationship with the medicine slowly, in a way that allows trust, capacity, and integration

Multiple Kambo peptides demonstrate receptor-level activity at nanomolar or sub-nanomolar concentrations, providing a strong mechanistic foundation for microdosing protocols even without requiring a full session. In simpler terms, this means that some of the active compounds in Kambo can influence the body even in incredibly small amounts, so small they're measured in billionths of a gram, making microdosing an additional potentially effective path.

See research tab for peer reviewed references.

The first time I was served Kambo was in the year 2000. It has been part of a journey of big shifts physically, emotionally, and energetically in my life. Since then, I have been served kambo in various settings, including in the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil and Peru from people in the Yawanawa, Kashinawa, Huni Kuin, and Matsés tribes. It is important to me to know and honor the indigenous cultures and traditions where plant and animal medicines originate, and it has been moving to hear directly, the same sharing repeated multiple times -  a strong wish that these ways are not lost, that the medicines bring health and transformation to our world, and gratitude that there are those that desire to learn this medicine and tradition, be stewards of it, and carry it forth.

Engaging in education and tools that support the difference in environments and cultures these medicines are now being served in is important to me as well. A portion of this was fulfilled by one of my visits to the Amazon where I spent a month immersed in a kambo initiation, dieta and training. A weaving of traditional initiation, learning, and honoring the indigenous tradition with my teacher Robinson from the Matsés tribe, while weaving with science, safety, and experience from Deyan who has served Kambo to hundreds of westerners.

While in dieta, I served myself kambo daily and as each ceremony passed I felt profound physical changes and connectivity to the spirit while awake and asleep. I then began the experience of serving others.

The Kambo medicine I carry with me and serve, comes from Robinson who I have walked with in the forest as he calls out to the frogs in song and collects their secretions. I am confident that he holds reverence, gratitude, and care for the frogs, is interested in protecting them, and harvests from them ethically.

Outside of the Amazon Rainforest, there are various ways people serve kambo. I am more on the traditional end of the spectrum. I place the secretion as it is done traditionally, on either arms and legs. I do not provide protocols, planning, or timing ahead of time with the exception of very specific cases. I believe the most accurate way to work with this medicine or any other, is to connect to an intention rather than an expectation, meet and fully consent to merge with it, listen, and notice the shifts that happen holistically. After the first session we can decide what is needed from there on.

Microdosing, a full session, alone, or in combination with other plants or modalities are all paths that can be taken. 

In a session, I stand on solid ground inviting the gifts of spirit and science. I bring with me many years of experience and education of providing people with guidance and support navigating through complex states of being. This merges with the medicine woman that I am and consent to be. My authentic presence in a kambo session is no different than any other space I am in - I remain centered and attune to your pace and body's responses in a way that can allow you to feel how held you are by the medicine, by my presence, by your surroundings, and most importantly how empowered and held you can be by the depth, vulnerability, and courage that moves through you. 

Safe practices and authentic reverence to this medicine, the frogs, indigenous people and culture, is crucial in order to preserve it and allow those who will benefit from it to continue to receive it. I am dedicated to this. When you schedule a call I will provide more in depth information, a detailed intake form, and a screening for known risks and contradictions of Kambo. Based on this information I will advise if we can meet.

There is a lot of info online, much of it is inaccurate. Always check the source of information. From my experience and from what I have learned - Kambo is safe as long as it is served by people who have knowledge, are connected to the medicine, and known contradictions are considered when deciding if its a good fit for you.

During a session I will take all safety precautions known to me and I will give guidance accordingly. In addition to my kambo training which included safety measures and practice of them, I have taken Caitlin Thompson’s Medicine Frog Kambo Safety course, I am part of a network of kambo practitioners where I receive mentorship and support, and am First Aid & CPR certified.

Taking all of this into consideration, the responsibility of knowing if this is the right moment and path for you is then ultimately yours. Learn the potential benefits and risks, listen in, and if it is, I would be honored to be with you.

1. Contact me to request a session

2. You will receive an intake/info packet to fill out and return to me. 

3. After reviewing the packet I will let you know if we can schedule a session. 

4. You will receive a packet with info on how to prepare before and after a session.

5. A call to check in with any questions.

6. We meet for a session.

7. We check in after .
   

Experience serving Kambo:

I have deep reverence for the spirit and medicine of kambo. I am confident in my ability to serve. I believe in the wisdom of community - when needed, I consult with teachers, mentors, and my kambo practitioner community, for support in understanding specific cases. I am not a medical professional and do not provide medical advise.

Financial reciprocity:

30% of the cost of your session will be given in reciprocity to the Matsés community.  I have a personal connection and trust that funds will directly reach the community and support their daily lives. 

In order to ensure the safety, humane treatment, preservation of the frogs and tradition, an indigenous person that is connected to this tradition should be performing this process. Unfortunately this is not the case these days and why it is very important to know where the secretion your practitioner is serving comes from. I am sharing this process here as I witnessed it and learned.

Traditionally, the person collecting the secretions goes out at night and calls to the frogs in sound and song. The frogs reply revealing their location high up in the trees. As the song continues some of the frogs come a bit closer and the person climbs to get closer to them reaching out with a stick towards them which they typically crawl onto. Later, the frogs legs are each attached with pieces of string created from bark of trees to four sticks that are placed in the earth. They are attached just strong enough to hold them there. The person then strokes either side of the frog with a stick releasing the secretion. They watch carefully to know the level of pressure and when the moment to stop is. The secretion is then spread upon bamboo sticks and dried for future use. 

Although we cannot truly know what the exact experience of the frogs are during this process, I can say that in witnessing this, the frogs do not appear to be in extreme distress. They gather when they hear the songs calling for them in the jungle and remain calm when gathered and throughout the process. Before and after, they do not quickly move away. They remain in place and even rest calmly in the palm of the person's hand or or move around on their body while staying closely around them for an extended amount of time. Tying of the legs leaves markings on the frog for several months. An indigenous person who cares for the frogs and this tradition will not collect secretion from a frog that they find and has these markings. If found, this is a sign to leave them be.

In conversation with my teacher Robinson who I witnessed in this process, a question arose on if it is possible to not tie the frogs in case it is painful for the frogs. He replied that perhaps, but then there would not be this marking which brings awareness that secretion has been collected from the frog. I was also curious if the collection of the secretion then leaves the frogs defenseless to predators and was told that if that was the case the frog population would not be flourishing as it is and they would not continually find frogs with different levels of markings on their legs months later. The assumption then is that the secretion renews rapidly enough for their protection.

As long as safe, ethical, and respectful practices of: respecting indigenous tradition by connecting to the source in tribes and not unfortunate medicine piracy based on financial gain, not over harvesting from each frog, harvesting while caring for them by leaving them in their specific natural habitat within the Amazon basin and by lakes known to nourish them, it is believed that the frog population will continue to flourish as it has for centuries.

Kambo is not regulated in most countries. This means that it is not legal or illegal or in other words - everything which is not forbidden is allowed. 

An example: in the United States, Kambo falls under similar laws as dietary supplements or other unapproved interventions. This legal framework implies that there are no grounds for legal prosecution related to the use, possession, or distribution of Kambo.

Kambo's status allows for its use, but it is subject to strict regulations regarding health claims. Language that suggests diagnosing, treating, curing, or preventing any disease is forbidden without FDA approval. 

Some exceptions:

In Brazil only indigenous people have been allowed by law to serve Kambo since 2004. This legislation was enacted to safeguard the native origins of the ritual and to prevent biopiracy.

In the UK It is classified under the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. Although it is not illegal, the classification is controversial since Kambo is not psychoactive. 

In Australia the practice and possession of Kambo has been illegal since 2021 following a tragic event where a woman died in 2019

In summary, I am not a medical professional and am not making any claims that Kambo will 100% cure or alleviate a medical condition. The Info on my site been learned, collected, and shared freely with you as resources while you make your own informed choices.

Research on the topic of Kambo is ongoing and readily available online. Remember to check the source of the information you find. Who is the author and where is it published or posted. Find information from trusted sources - Scientific and academic Journals for quantitative and qualitative scientific research and for more in depth learning about the culture, background, and specific practice from humans who are indigenous to this culture or stewards to it.

Kambo articles:

This is a list of Kambo research articles

This article can be downloaded and gives a good overview and some scientific explanations.

This article gives an overview of researched peptides

Articles on Kambo peptide effectivity at microdose levels:

Dermorphin

Deltorphin I & II

Sauvagine

Phylloseptins

Adenoregulin