Dispacamide A and new analogs of this marine alkaloid were prepared in seven steps with an overall yield ranging from 12 to 33%. The key step of the strategy was a stereocontrolled Knoevenagel condensation under microwave dielectric heating in the last step. In this condensation, the 2-aminoimidazolin-4-one hydrochloride partners 10a–c were synthesized in three steps with good overall yields (33–79%) via the ring closure of N-guanidino acetic ...