Countercurrent chromatography (CCC) is a liquid-liquid separation technique particularly adapted to preparative separations. In spite of the broad range of applications possible, CCC is mainly applied to the purification of natural products from complex mixtures, field in which some of the characteristics of CCC make it advantageous over other more common chromatographic modalities. Nevertheless, CCC has much to offer in biotechnological purification and enantioseparation. The general characteristics, advantages and drawbacks of CCC, together with its application in dieverse contexts, in paricular enantioseparations, are discussed.