Downstream processing refers to the recovery and purification of products from natural sources like plant/animal tissue or fermentation broth. It involves various unit operations like filtration, centrifugation, chromatography, precipitation etc. to separate and purify the product of interest. Filtration is commonly used to separate biomass from culture filtrate using different types of filters. Cell disruption techniques are employed to break open cells and release intracellular products. Purification methods like liquid-liquid extraction, precipitation, solid-liquid separation, and chromatography are then used to further purify the product.