ABSTRACT - Swelling tide of litigation raises serious questions about way makers of dietary supplements use--and often misuse--promise of scientific proof to market their products; in last eight months, three leading manufacturers of weight-loss pills have been hit with false-advertising verdicts in millions of dollars; fourth has been rebuked by federal judge for hiding evidence; Missouri attorney general and group of district attorneys in California have brought false-advertising suits against manufacturers; Congress is demanding research records of Cytodyne, maker of ephedra-based weight-loss pill Xenadrine RFA-1, supplement implicated in death of Baltimore Orioles pitcher; Judge Ronald L Styn, who handed down $12.5 million false-advertising judgment against Cytodyne, says researchers set out to create study that 'justified money being spent' by Cytodyne and would ensure that they received further work from company; Cytodyne and several other manufacturers have refashioned weight-loss products without ephedra, but experts say switch in ingredients does nothing to alter industry's reliance on questionable science; supplement makers are not obliged to do any research, but have embraced it as good advertising tool; experts contend that because industry is not regulated, its research is sometimes less than strictly scientific; photos (M) When a California judge handed down a $12.5 million false-advertising judgment against the maker of an ephedra-based weight-loss pill late last month, he also issued what amounted to a bill of reproach against the science of dietary supplements.

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