Epibatidine is an alkaloid found on the skin of the endangered Ecuadorian frog, Epipedobates tricolor. These frogs, like other poison dart frogs, are best known for their ability to sequester poisons from their prey and secrete these poisons onto their backs. Many Amerindian tribes would swipe the frogs' backs with their blowdarts to provide a much more successful hunt. The one toxin that distinguishes the Epipedobates tricolor from other frogs in this family is epibatidine. The frog uses the compound to protect itself from predators. Animals many times larger would die from the small amounts of epibatidine that the frog secretes. Epibatidine, which was being researched in 1974, turned out to be a very powerful analgesic. This had proven a powerful argument for further research, which has shown that epibatidine has gastrointestinal side effects. This gives the compound a very small therapeutic index and it is very unlikely to ever appear on the medicinal market.

John Daly, working for the National Institute of Health, collected samples of skin secretions from the frog in 1974. Although it was shown to work as an effective analgesic in mice with a potency 200 times that of morphine, technology at the time was not able to discern the chemical's structure because the preserved sample was too small. In addition, Daly's research was hindered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which put heavy restrictions on the collection of Epipedobates tricolor.