Among the most structurally remarkable guanidine natural products are the crambescidin/ptilomycalinA family of marine alkaloids. The evolution of a practical strategy for preparing pharmacologically significantcrambescidin/ptilomycalin A alkaloids that lack oxidation at C13 is described. The first total syntheses ofcrambescidin 800 (
2), crambescidin 657 (
6), and neofolitispate 2 (
7) are reported in full detail. The centralstrategic step in these convergent total syntheses is tethered Biginelli condensation of
-keto ester
24 withureido aminal
61 to combine all carbons of the guanidine nucleus and set the pivotal C10-C13 stereorelationship.The total synthesis of crambescidin 800 (
2) was accomplished in 3% overall yield from commercially available3-butyn-1-ol by way of 16 isolated and purified intermediates. Full details of our earlier total synthesis ofptilomycalin A (
1) are also presented. The total syntheses described in this disclosure confirm the stereochemicalassignments of
1,
2,
6, and
7 and rigorously establish that the absolute configuration of the hydroxyspermidineside chain of crambescidin 800 (
2) is
S.