Gastrointestinal hormones are considered to be those that are formed in the gastrointestinal tract and there, in physiological concentrations, develop their effects on motility, secretion, trophism, bloodflow and absorption. Structural analysis, synthesis or a high degree of purity after extraction, and its exact demonstration by means of a useful radioimmunoassay, form the basis for the establishment of a polypeptide as a gastrointestinal hormone. To this category belong, at the present time, gastrin, cholecystokinin-pancreozymin (CCK-PZ) and secretin. GIP, VIP, motilin, glucagon and somatostatin are considered likely candidates. The substances gastrin and CCK-PZ, which are structurally related and have a predominantly stimulating effect, and the structurally dissimilar motilin, contrast with the partially or totally inhibiting hormones of the glucagon family, namely, secretin, VIP, glucagon-enteroglucagon, GIP and somatostatin. By the combined action of these hormones with one another and with the autonomic nervous system, the digestive processes are regulated. Disturbances in the formation of these hormones, in particular an overproduction, give rise to disease syndromes that can now be diagnosed and, in part, treated by surgery. The therapeutic application of gastrointestinal hormones has now also become a possibility.