Background: The word obestatin is a contraction of obese, and derives from Latin ‘obedere’, meaning ‘to devour’ and ‘statin’, denoting suppression. First discovered in 2005 using bioinformatics, obestatin is a 23‐amino acid peptide that is derived from the same 117‐residue prepropeptide as ghrelin. High levels of GPR39 mRNA were found abundantly in the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the auditory cortex but not in the hypothalamus. Obestatin was first reported to inhibit jejunal contraction, food intake and body weight gain in rats, in addition to antagonising ghrelin‐induced contraction of isolated jejunum muscle. Furthermore, obestatin is incapable of preventing ghrelin‐mediated acceleration of gastric emptying or intestinal motility. In addition to its proposed physiological actions, it appears that obestatin may also confer some benefits in GI disease. For example, in rats, obestatin protects against experimental ulcerative colitis via acute attenuation of lipid peroxidation and TH1‐mediated inflammation, chronic suppression of polymorphonuclear leukocyte infiltration, induction of glutathione synthesis, improved mucosal blood flow and stimulation of cell proliferation in colonic mucosa, effects that may be mediated by activation of anti‐inflammatory cytokines