History of Kambo
The Legend and History of Kambo Treatment
About Kambo
Kambo is a secretion from the Giant Green Monkey Tree Frog, known in science as the Phyllomedusa Bicolor. The secretion is not a poison because it alone is NOT capable of causing illness, injury, or death.
In the Amazon, it is regarded as a medicine; however, this should not be confused with the Western definition of pharmaceutical medicine.
Those of us who give Kambo are practitioners, not doctors.
The Kambo frog has no natural predators & is found in abundance across the Upper Amazon rainforest areas of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, French Guiana, Suriname & Venezuela. The only known real threat to this frog species is the potential destruction of their habitat. These giant frogs reach up to 12cm in length and reproduce prolifically throughout the year - mainly from Nov-May. They construct hanging nests from folded leaves 1-3 meters above ponds and streams. The females deposit a mass of eggs into these nests. A single spawn contains a thousand eggs on average from which tadpoles emerge within 11-14 days.
No one is 100% certain the catalyst for producing the secretion is, but it is widely believed to be sequestered from their diet.
The frogs do not produce their secretion when they are removed from their natural environment.
THE LEGEND & HISTORY OF KAMBO CEREMONY
Each tribe has its legend or story about how they came to use Kambo. The
most prevalent legend comes from Brazil. This Kaxinawá legend tells that the Indians of the tribe were very ill and their medicine man (Pajé in Brazil) had done everything possible to cure them. All medicinal herbs known were used, but none helped. Under the effect of sacred plant medicines, he entered the forest and, whilst there, received a visit from a female spirit of the forest. She brought in her hands a frog, from which she took a white secretion and taught the Pajé how to apply it. Returning to the tribe and following the guidelines he had received, the Pajé could cure his brothers and sisters. From then on, he was known as Pajé Kampu or Kampum. After his death, his spirit lived on in the frog, which continued its mission to protect the health of those who defend the forest. The secretion became known as Kambo, but in some tribes, it is called Sapo, Dow-Kiet, Kampu, or Vacina da Floresta. Usage spread, and for thousands of years, Kambo has been used as medicine by the Kaxinawá people and by many other indigenous groups, including the Amahuaca, Katukina, Kulina, Yawanawá, Matses, Marubo, and Mayoruna. It is still used widely amongst indigenous people in the Amazon today.
The first observations of Kambo use were made by a French priest, Father Constantin Tastevin, in 1925 while staying with the Kaxinawá tribe in the upper Juruá River in Brazil. In the 1980s, an American Anthropologist, Katherine Milton, described Kambo use among the Mayoruna tribe in Brazil. In the 1980s, Peter Gorman wrote about his experiences taking Kambo with the Matses tribe in Peru. During the 1990’s, rubber tappers in Brazil learned about Kambo from the
Amazon Indians. They began to take it out into the towns of Acre and apply it themselves. Having spent several years living with the Katukina, Francisco Gomes from Cruzeiro do Sol was one of the first to pioneer Kambo's use outside the Amazon. The practice spread, and soon, people in the larger cities of Brazil were using Kambo. In 2004, ANVISA, the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária in Brazil, prohibited any advertising of Kambo's medicinal and therapeutic benefits. This was in response to the representation of the Brazilian government by the Katukina people about intellectual property rights. Aside from this restriction,
Kambo is legal everywhere in the world.
The science of it
Geek out on the science of peptides!
Twice nominated for a Nobel Prize and the person who first discovered Serotonin; an Italian scientist, Vittorio Erspamer of the University of Rome was the first person to analyze Kambo in a laboratory. In 1986, he wrote that it contains a ‘fantastic chemical cocktail with potential medical applications, unequalled by any other amphibian’.
The chemicals he referred to are peptides. These peptides studied by Erspamer have become essential to characterize the functional role of opioid receptors.
Several peptides have since been isolated from the secretion and several have been synthesized. Currently there are over 70 Kambo patents lodged of these peptides, mainly in the US – mainly by pharmaceutical companies.
The popularity and use of Kambo as a natural support to healing is spreading worldwide. As the scientific research into the secretion of the Phyllomedusa Bicolor grows, skilled practitioners are also developing new ways to work with this powerful substance from the Amazonian Rain Forest, which allows it to be accessible to almost everyone in a safe and manageable way.
Not only do we now have a number of different traditional ways to take Kambo but we can also work with the Meridians, the Chakras, Nadis and Marma Points and even the ears – Auricular Kambo. Added to this, there are also new techniques to allow people to take Kambo in a way that is gentler on their system but still allows them to enjoy the maximum benefits.
Neuro and Bio-Active Peptides in Kambo
Dermorphin - Dermorphin has an opiate-like effect on mu-opioid receptors, making it a very potent painkiller with effects 30-40 times stronger than morphine.
Deltorphin - Deltorphin is also a powerful painkiller and delta opioid agonist.
Phyllomedusin - A neuropeptide (possible to link to Wikipedia page on neuropeptides?) that has a powerful effect on intestines and bowels, contributing to the purging often experienced when taking kambo.
Phyllokinin - This neuropeptide can cause a long-lasting reduction in blood pressure.
Phyllocaerulein - Another potent painkiller that reduces blood pressure and affects thermoregulation.
Adenoregulin - A 33 amino acid peptide that works with the adenosine receptor. This antibiotic peptide can have harm-reducing effects against many bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, including cancer cells.
Dermaseptin - Induces potent antimicrobial activity against bacteria, yeast, fungi, protozoa, and enveloped viruses that often cause severe opportunistic infections.
Tryptophyllins - Highly potent against the yeast candida, may have potential in cardiovascular, inflammatory and anticancer therapy.