September 6, 1989

LEAD: SINCE April, the word psyllium has probably appeared in print more times than it had in all the five centuries after Gutenberg. General Mills and Procter & Gamble are responsible for its sudden notoriety: General Mills because it introduced a cereal called Benefit that contains psyllium, and Procter & Gamble because it wants the Food and Drug Administration to do something about health claims made for the General

LEAD: The man with the worn blue jeans and yellow rubber gloves pushed his grocery cart down Ninth Avenue one recent evening, expertly and methodically stalking one of urban life's most ubiquitous disposable commodities - the redeemable aluminum can.

LEAD: HANDS on his hips, Gianni Nunziante stares up at the faded apricot facade of Vignamaggio, the enormous 15th-century villa he owns here in the Tuscan hills. ''When I bought this place two years ago,'' he said, ''the building was covered with ivy. We pulled tons of it down; this is the first time these walls have seen the sun in 200 years.

LEAD: Harrison J. Goldin had barely begun to campaign in a community center in Queens at lunch time recently when an elderly woman gave him a weary look and said bluntly: ''Make it short. I'm hungry.''

LEAD: All New York City police officers, from those on patrol to Commissioner Benjamin Ward, will be subject to periodic random testing for drug use beginning later this month, Police Department officials announced yesterday.