Family ties: (from left) Marcus Blackmores son Alexander Borromeo, Blackmore, his wife Caroline and her daughter Imogen Merrony at their wedding.

Marcus Blackmore is riding the crest of a boom in sales of vitamin supplements, even though his products have been dismissed as a waste of money by many in the medical profession.

Long before Marcus Blackmore became king of the largest nutraceutical empire in the southern hemisphere, he used to study the scriptures of his father's faith, a heretic creed to many because of its fundamental belief in nature's healing powers. "Doctors can bury their mistakes," Maurice Blackmore, the man widely regarded as the father of Australian naturopathy, used to tell his son. "So why do patients only come to seek my advice after they've been to five doctors without any results?"

It was a good question and Marcus Blackmore was keen to learn. In 1950, at the age of five, he used to visit his father in his Queensland naturopathic clinic and idle away the hours by sticking product labels into an exercise book: "Fluvacs" (a mixture of iron and potassium) to combat flu; "Pep Ups" (a multi-mineral formula to restore energy); "Renatone" (to tone the kidneys) ...

Alternative view: complementary health-products mogul Marcus Blackmore at home in Pittwater, NSW. Photo: Tim Bauer

As a young teenager, Marcus Blackmore learnt how to prepare skin creams and ointments, although during one school holiday he and a friend decided to concoct a laxative formula consisting of dates, raisins and senna. His friend - later to become an eminent doctor - couldn't stop licking his fingers for the taste. "The next day he just shitted himself away," says Blackmore now, laughing. "He's never forgotten it."

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Raised in a household that banned white sugar and white bread (but gave considerable licence to Sanitarium Nutmeat!), Blackmore began working for his father full-time at the age of 18. Over the years - as young bull clashed with old - he was sacked three times before eventually taking over the business at 28.

That was in 1973 - 12 years before the company was publicly listed - and today Marcus Blackmore bestrides a complementary medicines industry in Australia that has grown 54 per cent in the past five years to be worth $3.5 billion in revenue a year, part of an estimated $138 billion annual global market.

Blackmore's father, Maurice, was already a pioneering figure in the world of Australian natural health when Marcus was born in 1945.

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The Medicine Man