Exhibit 99.1

Frances W. Preston Joins Bionovo's Board of Directors

EMERYVILLE, Calif., March 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bionovo Inc. (OTC
Bulletin Board: BNVI.OB) has appointed Frances W. Preston to the company's Board
of Directors. The addition of Ms. Preston expands the Board to five members and
further strengthens the company's base of business experts who can help advance
the company's future growth.

Ms. Preston is the non-salaried president of the T.J. Martell Foundation for
Leukemia, Cancer and AIDS Research. In 1992 she received the charity's
Humanitarian Award. Her involvement led to the creation of the Frances Williams
Preston Research Laboratories at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in
Nashville.

For more than 15 years, Ms. Preston had served as CEO and President of Broadcast
Music, Inc. (BMI). Under her leadership BMI's revenues grew more than three
times, to over $673 million. She is also nationally prominent in political
circles, and has served on President Jimmy Carter's Panama Canal Study
Committee, the Commission for the White House Record Library, and Vice President
Albert Gore Jr.'s National Information Infrastructure Advisory Council.

"We are honored that a woman of Ms. Preston's caliber has agreed to join our
Board of Directors. Her knowledge and expertise in both business and cancer
research and care will complement BioNovo's current Board," said Isaac Cohen,
chief executive officer of BioNovo.

Bionovo, Inc.

Bionovo is a drug development company focusing on the discovery of novel
pharmaceutical agents for cancer and women's health. The company is working
simultaneously on two distinct discovery approaches, one focusing on
pro-apoptotic agents for cancer and a second, in the area of selective estrogen
receptor modulators (SERMS) to treat severe menopausal symptoms. The company's
lead candidate drug, MF101 is in Phase 2 clinical testing and a second drug,
BZL101, designed to treat advanced breast cancer is ready to enter Phase 2. The
company is developing its products in close collaboration with leading U.S.
academic research centers including the University of California, San Francisco;
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center; University of California,
Berkeley; and the University of Texas, Southwestern. For further information
please visit: www.bionovo.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains certain forward-looking statements relating to the
business of Bionovo, Inc. that can be identified by the use of forward-looking
terminology such as "believes," "expects," or similar expressions. Such
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties,
including uncertainties relating to product development, efficacy and safety,
regulatory actions or delays, the ability to obtain or maintain patent or other
proprietary intellectual property protection, market acceptance, physician
acceptance, third party reimbursement, future capital requirements, competition
in general and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially
different from those described herein as anticipated, believed, estimated or
expected. Certain of these risks and uncertainties are or will be described in
greater detail in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which
are available at www.sec.gov. Bionovo, Inc. is under no obligation (and
expressly disclaims any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking
statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.