Abstract:The effects of commonly found Chinese honey (acacia honey, jujube honey, vitex honey, and lychee honey) and specialty honey (loquat honey, cinnacle honey, and kuding tea honey) on gut microbiota after in vitro simulated gastrointestinal digestion and colonic fermentation were investigated. The results showed that all seven types of honey had a regulatory effect on gut microbiota, increased the abundance of Actinobacteria and decreased the abundance of Firmicutes, lychee honey, acacia honey, vitex honey, kuding tea honey, loquat honey, cinnacle honey, and jujube honey reduced Firmicutes abundance by 30.08%, 21.2%, 34.83%, 35.5%, 32.73%, 35.7%, and 30.41%, respectively. Different types of honey had significantly different effects on gut microbiota. Lychee honey, locust honey, vitex honey, bitter tea honey, loquat honey, and Chinese sumac honey increased the abundance of Bacteroidetes, while lychee honey and locust honey decreased the abundance of Proteobacteria. Except for jujube flower honey, all other six types of honey reduced the Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes(F/B) ratio, with reductions of 341.99%, 337.37%, 106.36%, 128.14%, 141.59%, and 93.52% for lychee honey, acacia honey, vitex honey, kuding tea honey, loquat honey, and cinnacle honey, respectively, with lychee honey having the best effect. The effects of honey on gut microbiota were directly related to the plant source of honey, rather than the type of honeybee. The abundance of Firmicutes was negatively correlated with the total polyphenol content.