For their experiment, they hoped to find out whether or not these phthalides make the complex smell and taste of chicken soup better.

The scientists, then, added each component one at a time into chicken broth. After each component was added they had ten female subjects, with excellent olfactory and gustatory senses (aka, they smell and taste things really well), smell and taste the concoction.

Then, the scientists repeated the tests with clips on the subjects' noses so they could only taste the soup, not smell it.

Also, some were given broth alone (with nothing added) as a control, while others were given the broth-plus mixture.

They were asked to describe what they ate in such terms as “thick,” “impactful,” “mild,” “lasting,” “satisfied,” “complex,” “refined,” and “clarified,” which are descriptions of complex flavors, and for such terms as “sweet,” “salty,” and “umami” (similar in English to “savory”), which are descriptions for taste.

The researchers concluded that three of the four phthalides (sedanenolide, 3-n-butylphthalide, and sedanolide) enhanced the flavor of the chicken broth. Sedanenolide was deemed most effective by the researchers.

While wearing the nose clips, none of the four phthalides helped to boost the flavor of the broth.

The results of the Kubota team were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
The title of the article is “Flavor Enhancement of Chicken Broth from Boiled,” and the authors are Yoshiko Kurobayashi, Yuko Katsumi, Akira Fujita, Yasujiro Morimitsu, and Kikue Kubota, from the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences, Laboratory of Food Chemistry, Ochanomizu and/or the Technical Research Center,
You might say that, in this case, too many cooks did not spoil the broth!

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Chemistry  Food  Research  Science  William Atkins