The origin of kretek cigarettes can be traced to 1880. The creator of kretek was Haji Djamhari, a native of Kudus in Indonesia's Central Java region. Suffering from chest pains, Djamhari attempted to reduce the pain by rubbing clove oil on his chest. Djamhari sought a means of achieving a deeper relief and smoked his hand-rolled cigarettes after adding dried clove buds and rubber tree sap. According to the story, his asthma and chest pains healed immediately. Word of Djamhari's product spread rapidly among his neighbors, and the product soon became available in pharmacies as "rokok cengkeh"; clove cigarettes. First marketed as a medicinal product, kreteks became widely popular.