Research Progress on Biological Activity of Royal Jelly and Its Application in Health Foods

Royal jelly has a long history of application as an important raw material for traditional precious nutritional supplements and modern health foods in China. The major chemical components of royal jelly include water, protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and minerals, among which the core active components are major royal jelly proteins (MRJPs) and 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid. This paper summarizes the bioactivities of royal jelly including immunoregulatory, antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, neuroprotective, reproductive protection, hepatoprotective and anti-tumor functions. Besides, based on the Yaozhi health food registration database (https://www.yaozh.com/) and the global patent database of IncoPat, this paper comprehensively analyzes the current situation of royal jelly-based health foods at home and abroad in terms of geographical distribution, functional claim, compatibility pattern, international market characteristics, and application status of Chinese producers. The results showed that health foods based on royal jelly in China exhibit regional clustering characteristics, mainly distributed in eastern provinces. The major dosage form is capsules, and the function claims concentrate in basic fields such as immune enhancing and anti-fatigue functions. A network consisting of royal jelly plus ginseng-honey-American ginseng combination as raw materials and wolfberry, antler, astragalus, and VC as ingredients can synergistically enhance immunity. The development modes of royal jelly products in different regions of the world are different, and clinical research has achieved coverage of all age groups. In the future, it is necessary to build a standard system of the whole industry chain covering the detection of characteristic components, develop new preparation technologies such as enzymatic desensitization and sustained-release encapsulation, focus on expanding market segments such as precision nutrition and military foods, strengthen industry-university-research cooperation, promote the transformation and upgrading of the royal jelly industry from traditional raw material supply to high value-added product system, and inject new kinetic energy into the high-quality development of China’s big health industry.