The quote was
and the source was singular. Also noted was just about every variety of bait folks successfully.
When you go back and read the work of the source for the sweet pungent odor, Tyler Campbell, you will find that his work was in trying to find a way to attract hogs to poison pellets and the poison pellets needed to be given a smell to make them attractive and to do so while trying to NOT attract non-target species.
Interestingly, Campbell in 2009 did not test corn as a bait, only fish, vegetable (non-specific), strawberry, and combinations of fish and FeralMone or vegetable and FeralMone. Suffice it to say that fish and fish with FeralMone did substantially better than strawberry. Strawberry worked alright, but was not superior, but did work very well buried.
Interestingly, the above study was somewhat contradictory to the previous 2008 study where apple and strawberry attractants were quite favorable.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1777&context=icwdm_usdanwrcIt should be noted that Campbell's goals are to locate species-specific attractant for feral hogs for which to treat poison bait. Obviously, that isn't going to happen, so trying to find a scent that would not be as appreciated by non-target species.
http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1877&context=icwdm_usdanwrcStrangely, these tests did not involve the use of corn or acorns.
Sweet pungent odored baits will work, based on the research cited, there is no indication that it works better than using corn as corn wasn't even considered in the testing.
