Natural health giant Blackmores has donated $1.3 million towards research into complementary medicine at the University of Sydney in exchange for naming rights on a professorial chair.

The Maurice Blackmore Chair of Integrated Medicine has been established under confidential terms that both parties say will keep the company at arm's length from the research it funds.

Marcus Blackmore, of complementary medicine company Blackmores, which hopes University of Sydney research into the field will provide public health benefits. Credit:Andrew Quilty

The university's medical school dean, Bruce Robinson, said the researcher would study complementary and integrated medicine - "how it works, whether it works, whether it may have side effects and whether it might interact with other medicines".

A National Prescribing Service survey found 89 per cent of consumers were regular or occasional users of complementary medicine, but little was known about its interaction with Western medicine, Professor Robinson said.