Intestinal microbiota plays an important role in human health. The aim of this paper is to determine the impact of the phenolics and carbohydrate in buckwheat honey on human intestinal microbiota. We investigated the phenolics and carbohydrate compositions of eight buckwheat honey samples using high‐performance liquid chromatography and ion chromatography. The human intestinal microbes were cultured in a medium supplemented with eight buckwheat honey samples or the same concentration of fructooligosaccharides. The bacterial 16S rDNA V4 region sequence of DNA extraction was determined by the Illumina MiSeq platform. 12 phenolics and 4 oligosaccharides were identified in almost all buckwheat honey samples, namely, protocatechuic acid, 4‐hydroxy benzoic acid, vanillin, gallic acid, p‐coumaric acid, benzoic acid, isoferulic acid, methyl syringate, trans,trans‐abscisic acid, cis,trans‐abscisic acid, ferulic acid, 4‐hydroxybenzaldehyde, kestose, isomaltose, isomaltotriose, and panose. Most notably, this is the first study to reveal the presence of 4‐hydroxybenzaldehyde in buckwheat honey. 4‐Hydroxybenzaldehyde seems to be a land marker of buckwheat honey. Our results indicate that buckwheat honey can provide health benefits to the human gut by selectively supporting the growth of indigenous Bifidobacteria and restraining the pathogenic bacterium in the gut tract. We infer that buckwheat honey may be a type of natural intestinal‐health products.

Major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) are deemed to the most characteristic and abundant constituents in royal jelly. The present paper establishes a sequential process to purify the natural MRJP 1–3 by three different chromatographic procedures. Five individual proteins were obtained, including MRJP 1 oligomer 1, MRJP 1 oligomer 2, MRJP 1 monomer, MRJP 2 and MRJP 3s (contain three MRJP 3 variants) with a purity of 89.88%, 67.79%, 99.92%, 99.41%, and 99.97%, respectively. This is the first report that MRJP 1 mainly possesses three oligomers: a 228 kDa MRJP 1 oligomer 1, a 408 kDa MRJP 1 oligomer 2 and a 639 kDa MRJP 1 oligomer 3. We infer that MRJP 1 oligomer 3 (639 kDa) may be assembled by MRJP 1 oligomer 1 (228 kDa) and MRJP 1 oligomer 2 (408 kDa). The secondary structure of the purified MRJP 1–3 consisted predominantly of β-sheets and random coil in the native conformation. Our results will contribute to the physiological and physicochemical function of the purified individual MRJPs.

Bee pollen and its extracts have been used for decades as therapeutic agents or health food supplements to alleviate chronic nonbacterial prostatitis (CNP). However, the functional compounds in bee pollen that are anti‐CNP remain still unclear. In this study, we evaluated the anti‐CNP properties of six principal phenolamides in bee pollen. Our results provide compelling evidence that the anti‐CNP property of bee pollen may be ascribed to its abundance of phenolamides. Particularly, di‐ p ‐Coumaroyl spermidine can alleviate CNP by upregulating autophagy via the AMPK/mTOR signaling pathway and regulating gut microbiota, based on the cellular and rat models. Additionally, our finding may provide a novel insight into the gut–prostate axis by regulating di‐ p ‐Coumaroyl spermidine. This is the first report that di‐ p ‐Coumaroyl spermidine in bee pollen possesses the anti‐prostatitis function. This paper will likely be helpful further to develop functional foods, personalized nutraceuticals, and medicine from bee pollen.