It's almost guaranteed to make you violently ill and a coroner is currently investigating its role in two deaths in northern NSW.
So, what is kambo, and why do some people pay big money to use poison from a South American frog?
Where does kambo come from?
The kambo ceremony involves poison harvested from the back of the Amazonian giant tree frog (Phyllomedusa bicolor) and has its origins in South America.
According to the International Association of Kambo Practitioners, which formed in 2014, the most prevalent legend comes from Brazil, where a medicine man is said to have cured his tribe with the substance after being visited by a female spirit of the forest.
It says kambo was used as medicine for thousands of years by Indigenous groups in the Amazon, before spreading to parts of Europe around 2010.
Intended to induce severe vomiting
Kambo devotees make small dot-like burns on their skin before applying the poison with a stick that has been rubbed on the frog's back.
The process induces severe vomiting, which is claimed to rid the body of toxins and potentially cure other physical and mental health problems.
Australian health authorities say there is no evidence to support those claims.
Inquests held into NSW deaths
Kambo has been in the spotlight this month as the NSW state coroner conducted back-to-back inquests in Lismore, on the state's north coast.
Natasha Lechner, 39, died in 2019, shortly after she had taken part in a kambo ceremony at her home in Mullumbimby.
Three medical experts testified that the likely cause of her death was an acute coronary event, despite the fact an autopsy found no evidence of heart disease.
Lismore man Jarrad Antonovich, 46, died after using kambo at the Dreaming Arts Festival in Collins Creek, north of Kyogle, in 2021.
The cause of his death was a ruptured oesophagus, which may have been caused by severe and repeated vomiting or retching.
State coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is yet to hand down her findings in the first matter, while the second inquest will continue later this year.
Little data available on kambo potency
During the course of both inquests the court heard from a number of witnesses, including the medical director at the NSW Poisons Information Centre, Associate Professor Darren Roberts.
He told the court there was little data available about kambo, and whether its potency could be affected by factors such as the location or maturity of the frog involved.
Dr Roberts said there were always dangers involved in taking an unknown substance, and noted that even drinking too much water could be fatal.
"As we toxicologists like to say, everything is a poison, it just depends on the dose," he said.
Dr Roberts told the court there had even been moves in South America to limit the use of kambo by tourists.
"This may have a role in traditional cultures, which is where it should be limited to," he said.
An expensive, and now illegal, substance
The use and supply of kambo was legal in Australia until October 2021, when the Therapeutic Goods Administration classified it as a substance of "such danger to health as to warrant prohibition on sale, supply and use".
Bella Gardner, who attended the five-day spiritual retreat where Mr Antonovich died, told the court she first used kambo in 2020.
Ms Gardner said she paid $150 for that session on a property in the Northern Rivers, and had since spent about $5,000 on kambo and another South American substance known as ayahuasca.
Ayahuasca is also traditionally used by Indigenous South American shamans, with promises of spiritual, physical and psychological healing and growth.
The plant grows only in the Amazon and, when brewed with other natural jungle products, becomes one of the most powerful hallucinogens in the world.
She recalled a traumatic experience which involved severe vomiting.
"I felt like I was nearly going to die," she said.
"I was dramatically purging and needed help.
"But you're trained to trust the medicine, trust the process and trust them [the practitioners]."
Kambo used in spiritual search
The Coroner's Court heard Mr Antonovich travelled to South America after suffering a brain injury when he was a passenger in a serious car accident.
Christopher Antonovich testified that his brother was different when he returned.
"In the following years we noticed a significant change in Jarrad's behaviour," he said.
"Organic diet, yoga, exercise, and a much more holistic attitude towards health and wellbeing."
Similarly, Natasha Lechner was described as someone who did not reject mainstream medicine, but saw kambo as being "complementary".
Counsel assisting the coroner, Dr Peggy Dwyer, told the court "whatever Tash was doing, she was doing with love in her heart".
"Her only interest in kambo was for spirituality and healing."
