OKLAHOMA CITY -- What's green in color and inspires grown men to run?

It's the "little green pill," and according the company that sells it, BioPerformance, Inc., drivers can throw a couple of pills in their gas tanks and see up to a 25% increase in gas mileage.

What's The Fuss Over Little Green Pill?

With the price of gas climbing higher and higher, who wouldn't want to squeeze another five miles out of every gallon? However, consumers shouldn't look for it on store shelves.

They're only available through multilevel marketing, and a pastor-turned-MLM veteran, Lowell Mims, leads the company, which is based in the Dallas, Texas, area.

People involved with the organization said the little green pill is the perfect package. They said:

• It can save you money.
• It can save the planet.
• It can keep money out of the hands of Saudis.
• It's all-American.

Participants also believe this product can make them millionaires. Mims said his goal is to help 1,000 people become millionaires this year. Company officials said they're completely legitimate, and they talk openly about it in a presentation they called, "The American Dream Or Pyramid Scheme?"

The pills are not cheap at $1 apiece. According to product instructions, it takes two or three pills per tank to be effective as well as additional pills the first time drivers use the product, as part of what the company calls a "booster shot."

But does the product really work?

Chemistry and race-car-testing experts at the University of Central Florida conducted some experiments to put the little green pill to the test. Dr. Kevin Belfield, the head of the university's chemistry department, and Dr. Bob Hoekstra took a test car to a shop called KDK Performance. They strapped a minivan to what is essentially a treadmill for cars.

They run the vehicle at 70 mph to ascertain a baseline against which other tests can be measured. After about 10 minutes, the minivan ran out of gas. To prove the claims of BioPerformance, the minivan with little green pills in it would have to run the motor on the same amount of gas 25 percent longer.

Hoekstra said his tests revealed that the little green pills not only had no effect on gas efficiency, he said he discovered that the BioPerformance produce is comprised of naphthalene, a product used in moth balls decades ago. Scientists eventually discovered that naphthalene was toxic, with links to cancer.

"One can inhale it, ingest it, and one can absorb it through the skin. All this can have very detrimental effects," Hoekstra said.

"Bottom line? You're throwing your money away," he added. "It simply does not work."