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Hapé and sananga: what they are and what to ask

BySafe Ceremonies

If you read many ceremony listings, you’ll keep seeing two words next to ayahuasca and kambo: hapé and sananga. Hapé (also spelled rapé) is a snuff blown or sniffed into the nose. Sananga is a set of eye drops. Both come from the Amazon, both are often presented as small extras at the start of a ceremony, and both are less well understood than the way they’re offered might suggest.

They are common. In a 2026 study of 49 organizations advertising psychedelic retreats, 15 combined a psychedelic with something non-psychedelic, such as kambo, hapé, cacao or sananga. In an online survey of 386 people who had taken kambo, published in 2021, 78 percent had used rapé tobacco and 62 percent had used sananga eye drops. This guide explains what each one is, what is and isn’t known about their risks, and what to ask before either is offered to you. It doesn’t cover how to make or use them.

What hapé is

Hapé is a finely ground powder, usually made from tobacco mixed with other plant material and sometimes with plant ash. A 2015 chemical analysis carried out at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes rapé as a group of smokeless tobacco products native to South America, generally used as a nasal snuff. The authors note that tobacco use in South and Central America goes back thousands of years, and that some rapé varieties are used in the medicinal and spiritual practices of particular Amazonian peoples, including the Kaxinawá, Nu-nu, Yawanawá and Katukina.

The tobacco in hapé is usually Nicotiana rustica, a species linked with higher nicotine levels than products made from common tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum. The other ingredients vary from blend to blend. The CDC analysis found tonka bean, clove, cinnamon, camphor and menthol in various products, and, in one hand-made blend, what the authors suspected was ash from the bark of macambo, a relative of cacao. Two of the products tested contained no tobacco at all.

In ceremony settings, hapé is usually given through a small pipe, either blown into each nostril by a practitioner or self-applied. Many groups attach spiritual meaning to it. Those are beliefs, and there’s no clinical research behind claims that hapé cleanses, grounds or heals.

What’s known about the risks of hapé

There’s very little research on hapé itself, and none that we could find on occasional ceremonial use. What exists is a chemical analysis of the products and a large body of evidence about tobacco and nicotine in general.

It is tobacco, often strong tobacco

The CDC analysis tested manufactured and hand-made rapés from Brazil. In the products that contained tobacco, total nicotine ranged from 6.3 to 47.6 milligrams per gram. For comparison, the US National Cancer Institute cites studies finding between 10.5 and 24.8 milligrams per gram in dry snuff, so the strongest rapé tested held about twice as much as the strongest dry snuff.

The two hand-made blends had a very high pH because of the ash added to them. That turned almost all of their nicotine into its un-ionized form, which the authors note is absorbed more quickly through the lining of the mouth. They calculated that these two blends held more un-ionized nicotine than any of the US moist snuff products in an earlier study.

Nicotine raises blood pressure, breathing rate and heart rate, according to the US National Institute on Drug Abuse, and it is addictive. That matters if you have a heart condition, high blood pressure or a history of nicotine dependence, and it matters for anyone combining hapé with other substances that affect the heart.

Cancer-causing compounds

The National Cancer Institute’s position on smokeless tobacco is plain: there is no safe form of tobacco, and smokeless tobacco causes cancers of the mouth, esophagus and pancreas. The CDC analysis found tobacco-specific nitrosamines and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in rapé, including compounds that the International Agency for Research on Cancer classes as known or probable causes of cancer. Levels varied widely between products.

None of this tells you the risk of a few uses of hapé at a ceremony. That hasn’t been studied. It does mean hapé carries the risks of tobacco, and that using it regularly is using tobacco regularly.

You often can’t know what’s in it

The CDC analysis found that rapé packaging did not accurately list what was inside. Several products contained ingredients not named on the label, and some contained milligram amounts of camphor, coumarin or eugenol, chemicals whose effects when taken through the nose the authors said need further study. The paper also mentions reports that some custom blends have hallucinogenic properties. A practitioner who makes or buys their own blend may not know its strength either.

What sananga is

Sananga is a liquid made from shrubs of the genus Tabernaemontana, usually given as drops into the open eye. A 2022 scientific review of the kambo frog describes sananga as eye drops made from Tabernaemontana undulata, and notes that both tobacco snuff and sananga are often given around kambo rituals. The survey of kambo users describes rapé and sananga as plants often linked with ayahuasca use but little known to Western people outside that setting.

Tabernaemontana belongs to the same plant family as iboga. A 2021 review of the genus lists dozens of alkaloids found in different species, including, in some, ibogaine. We found no study of what a typical bottle of sananga contains, or of how much of anything in it reaches the body through the eye.

What’s known about the risks of sananga

Very little. We searched the medical literature and could not find a published study, case series or case report on sananga’s effects on the eye. People who offer it usually warn that it stings or burns when it goes in. Whether that sting does any harm to the surface of the eye, especially with repeated use, is unknown.

Some general eye-safety points apply. The American Academy of Ophthalmology warns that putting substances not made for eyes into them can irritate the eye and damage the cornea, and that non-sterile liquids used as drops raise the risk of a dangerous eye infection. Its examples are castor oil and breast milk, but the reasoning covers any home-made or hand-made drop. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists eye drops among the personal items not to share, as part of preventing the spread of pink eye.

If you have severe eye pain, blurred or lost vision, or pain that doesn’t settle after drops, get medical help, and tell the doctor exactly what was used.

Consent comes first

Both hapé and sananga are applied to you, often by someone else, and often in the middle of a ceremony. That makes consent easy to skip. The Council on Spiritual Practices’ code of ethics for spiritual guides says participation in a practice should be voluntary and agreed in advance by each person in an ordinary state of mind, after hearing about any physical or psychological risks.

For hapé and sananga, that means:

  • You are told before the ceremony whether either will be offered.
  • Nobody blows hapé into your nose or puts drops in your eyes without asking you first, at the time.
  • You can say no to either and still take part in everything else.
  • Saying no doesn’t bring pressure, teasing or talk of you “not being ready.”
  • If you’ve already taken another substance, you’re asked again, and a no is respected.

Our guide to consent, touch and boundaries covers this more broadly.

Hygiene

Hapé pipes touch the inside of the nose, and sananga bottles can touch the eye. When the same applicator goes from person to person, so can whatever is on it. One 2008 study found blood and hepatitis C genetic material on drug-sniffing implements used by people with hepatitis C. The authors said that transmission by this route was plausible, though unconfirmed. Ask:

  • Does each person get their own applicator, or how is it cleaned between people?
  • Does the dropper touch the eye, and is the same bottle used for everyone?
  • Does the practitioner wash their hands between people?

Questions to ask

  1. Will hapé, sananga or anything else be offered, and when in the ceremony?
  2. Is it optional, and will I be asked before anyone applies it?
  3. What’s in your hapé? Does it contain tobacco, and do you know how strong it is?
  4. Where does it come from, and who made it?
  5. What is your sananga made from, and who made it?
  6. Do you ask about heart problems, blood pressure, pregnancy and nicotine use before offering hapé?
  7. How are applicators and droppers kept clean, and is anything shared?
  8. What do you do if someone has a bad reaction, such as vomiting, fainting or eye pain?

Red flags

  • Hapé or sananga applied without asking, or presented as compulsory.
  • Claims that either cures illness, removes toxins, heals the eyes or improves eyesight.
  • No idea what’s in the blend or where it came from.
  • One pipe or one bottle used on everyone with no cleaning.
  • Eye pain or blurred vision brushed off as “the medicine working.”
  • No health questions before offering a strong tobacco product to someone with a heart condition.

More guides

Reviews from past participants can tell you whether a center asks before offering hapé or sananga, and how it handles a no. You can search the Safe Ceremonies listings, including the ayahuasca and Kambo categories, where these practices come up most often.

Sources

Photo: Rainforest canopy by Ben Sutherland, CC BY 2.0.

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Author: Safe Ceremonies

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