Enforcing Ostwald's rule of stages: isolation of paracetamol forms III and II.

We have been able to isolate and study the polymorphic form III of paracetamol using a specially designed methodology. Our work represents the first report of a reproducible, reliable route to form III. This has been an outstanding problem for over quarter of a century. Our method may be applicable to the isolation of metastable polymorphs of other compounds.